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SCMP Reporter

A DECORATOR who claims he was assaulted by policemen during a routine stop-and-search operation yesterday denied that he was cheeky to the officers.

  Wong Kwok-hung, 25, was being cross-examined by defence counsel Kevin Egan on the second day of the trial of six police officers in San Po Kong Court. Mr Wong was one of the three alleged victims of the assault.

  On trial before Magistrate Kwok Wai-kin are police constables Cheung Kin-tak, 23, Tsang Yee-man, 26, Kevin Wong Chi-kin, 23, Lee Ching-cheung, 27, Cheng Wing-keung, 35, and Senior Police Constable Ng Shiu-kwan, 39.

  Cheung, Lee and Ng have pleaded not guilty to common assault, while Tsang, Wong and Cheng have denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

  The prosecution said two customs officers intervened because of the rough way the four policemen were treating Mr Wong outside the Luen Hing Yuen noodle shop in Hunghom on February 17.

   Mr Wong had earlier testified that the policemen beat him on the back and head when the two customs officers warned police that they would be witnesses if the officers used excessive force.

  He denied that he was annoyed when one of the three police officers stopped and searched him while he was looking for a cash machine. A fourth police officer later drove to the scene.

  Mr Wong also denied Mr Egan's suggestion that he had been cheeky to the police in demanding that a plain-clothes officer show his warrant card. He denied getting angry at being detained for more than 10 minutes.

  Mr Wong further denied he had vented his anger on the plain-clothes officer, who had searched him, by throwing a punch at his face and kneeing him between the legs.

  Mr Egan also put it to Mr Wong that it was only after attacking the officer that other policemen pounced on him and subdued him after a struggle. Mr Wong denied this.

  ''I suggest any force the police officers applied to you was reasonable force to overpower you because you resisted arrest,'' Mr Egan said. The witness disagreed.

  The witness, who went to Tuen Mun Court yesterday morning to face a charge of possessing a dangerous drug, had denied Mr Egan's suggestions that he was a drug addict and was experiencing a state of drug withdrawal when he was cross-examined by him.

  Questioned by prosecutor Michael Lunn, Mr Wong said that, while in the police vehicle, he saw a tall customs officer being dragged, assaulted and kicked by a group of police officers.

  On seeing this, Mr Wong said an officer armed with a torch threatened to assault him if he did not lower his head. The witness then did as he was told.

  Two other alleged victims were customs officers Yeung Hak-kwong and Tang Kwok-keung, both 28.

  The Crown is expected to call Mr Yeung as a witness today.



'Victim' denies being cheeky