Police guarding a crime scene at a clinic suspected of illegally carrying out an abortion and keeping various drugs admitted leaving their watch to buy food and chat.
The officers were speaking at the trial of Chinese medical practitioner Jiang Haipu, 54. He has been charged with possessing a poison on Part I of the Poisons List and an Antibiotics Ordinance substance, as well as a pharmaceutical product not registered for sale or distribution, on May 23 last year in his Argyle Street clinic.
Jiang was previously charged with administering an illegal abortion, but that charged was withdrawn.
On May 23 and 24, after police arrested Jiang, they secured the Mong Kok clinic and guarded it in pairs or alone. They admitted yesterday that during these shifts, they left their watch to chat with colleagues or get food, and allowed unauthorised officers to take over or get near the scene.
According to the prosecution's earlier account, only the officers authorised to be on watch were at the scene, and these officers were only there during their watch-duty times.
The admissions led Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen to ask whether there was a dereliction of duty on the officers' part.
Jiang claimed that officers had tampered with evidence and that discrepancies in witness statements and testimonies indicate the officers were lying and collaborating over their evidence.
