It all seems like deja vu. In 1993, former Crown prosecutor Kevin Egan walked out of court with his name cleared after a 21/2-year battle against allegations that he lent a disgraced government lawyer a pen gun and helped him flee Hong Kong. At his victory party at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, he confessed: 'I have been a barrister for 20 years and have spent 18 years prosecuting. I finally realised how the poor bugger on the other side feels.'
Thirteen years later, Egan, who has since become one of the most prominent criminal barristers in town, found himself in the dock again. As during the previous trial, he was defended by his good friend and fellow Australian, John McNamara, against his one-time ally, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). On the first day of the three-month trial, the 59-year-old, charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice and disclosing to reporters the identity of a participant in the witness protection programme, returned the same vehement answer - 'not guilty' - to every charge read out to him in a packed courtroom.
Also arrested in the case was Egan's long-term professional colleague and friend, Andrew Lam Ping-cheung, 54, who rose to fame as a criminal solicitor in the early 1990s.
However, the difference this time was that victory was not on their side. On Monday, District Court Chief Judge Barnabas Fung Wah found Egan guilty of two charges of attempting to disclose the identity of a participant in the ICAC's witness protection programme to then South China Morning Post reporter Magdalen Chow Yin-ling in July 2004.
But Egan was acquitted of the more serious offence - conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Lam was convicted of this offence, as was prominent businessman Derek Wong Chong-kwong and Wong's lover, Mandy Chui Man-si. Egan and Lam were also acquitted of a joint count of conspiracy to reveal the identity of the witness. There was no victory party at the FCC this week. The judgement is still being read in court, with a date for sentencing still to be announced.
The verdict and pending sentencing brings to a close one of Hong Kong's most colourful and enduring legal partnerships. During the trial, the pair were frequently referred to as 'thorns in the side' of the ICAC - a term used by their own lawyers and friends, including a former senior government prosecutor.