SIX policemen were yesterday cleared of brutality after a magistrate ruled they were of good character and unlikely to have committed the offence.
Sergeant Ip Tai-wai, 31, and five constables from the New Territories North Special Duties Squad had been accused of assaulting 17-year-old Yu Shui-kin.
Sergeant Ip was also cleared of criminal intimidation against the youth and of wounding garage owner Tung Kin-sum, 36, who claimed the officer had put a hood on him and broken three of his ribs.
'All defendants were serving police officers and are of good character,' Magistrate David Thomas told Fanling Court.
'When I put that into the balance, I am left with the view that any conviction in this case would be unsafe and unsatisfactory.' During last month's six-day hearing, prosecutor William Lam said Mr Tung and his business associate Yu were intercepted by three vehicles on January 14, dragged from their car and bundled into a van near a minibus terminus in Sheung Shui.
The court heard Mr Tung realised his alleged assailants were policemen when they handcuffed the pair and drove them to Shek Wu Hui sewage treatment plant.
