Protester's loud-hailer so loud it made me dizzy, officer testifies

A police constable told a court yesterday his ear was only a few centimetres from an activist's loud-hailer when slogans were shouted during a protest outside police headquarters last year.

Testifying in Eastern Court yesterday, Constable Choi Chi-lun said he felt dizzy and suffered pain in his right ear after Sunny Leung Chun-wai shouted twice through the loud-hailer close to his ear.

Leung, 32, a social worker, denies one count of wilfully obstructing Senior Inspector Au Wai-man in the execution of his duty and another of assaulting Constable Choi outside police headquarters in Wan Chai on August 11.

About 50 members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students had marched from Central to police headquarters in protest at the outcome of an internal police investigation into the use by an officer of pepper spray on student protesters on June 26, 2000.

Constable Choi, who had lined up with other officers to block the protesters, said he felt so unwell after the loud-hailer blast he asked station sergeant Tam Tak-on for permission to see a doctor.

Constable Choi said he was later sent to Queen Mary Hospital for a checkup. An examination revealed he had not suffered any injury or impairment to his ear.