Whitehead trial closes

THE trial of a guard accused of assaulting inmates during a raid on Whitehead detention centre closed yesterday amid allegations of lying.

After nine days of evidence in Sha Tin Court, Magistrate Simon Jenkins reserved judgment until next Friday in the trial of Correctional Services Department (CSD) officer Cheung Foo-sang.

Cheung, 35, has denied assaulting Vietnamese asylum-seekers Ngyuen Van Lim and six-year-old Hoang Manh Dung during the April 7 tear-gas raid at Whitehead.

Defence lawyer Paul Tse Tak-yan accused the boat people of inventing their stories in an effort to frame Cheung. Details of the assaults provided in statements differed from those given in court and this suggested they had changed their accounts, he said.

Prosecutor William Lam Kui-po submitted it was the CSD officers who had fabricated their stories by providing the 'unprovable' evidence they had handed in their batons and shields shortly after the raid started.

He questioned Mr Tse's decision to call as a witness CSD officer Yue Ka-fai, due in court soon in a second Whitehead assault trial.