Magistrates should watch sex films seized by police rather than leave it to officers to decide if they are disgusting or depraved, the Court of Appeal said yesterday.
Mr Justice Noel Power said it was the duty of magistrates to make their own assessment of the degree of obscenity before judging video shop owners.
The court refused a bid by the Attorney-General to have a prison sentence imposed on a video store manager caught with 292 sex films. Chow Kun-lap, 38, had been fined $10,000 by Magistrate Mary Yuen after pleading guilty to possessing and publishing obscene articles.
John Reading, for the Crown, said the fines were too lenient and a deterrent sentence was needed. The court heard the magistrate had not watched any of the videos seized from Chow's Mongkok shop.
Instead, she accepted the view of a police officer they were 'disgusting and filthy'. Ms Yuen said two tapes, which had been viewed by the police, showed men and women indulging in sexual intercourse.
Mr Justice Charles Ching said: 'She seems to have proceeded on the basis that because someone else found it disgusting it must be disgusting.' He accepted it might take a magistrate weeks to watch 292 tapes.
