Jury rules development chief Paul Chan and wife lose defamation case
Development secretary and wife are ordered to pay HK$230,000 compensation after falsely accusing teenage twins of cheating in exam
Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po and his wife Frieda Hui Po-ming were yesterday found liable for defaming twins and their father over allegations of cheating at school.
The High Court ordered the couple to pay the pupils' family HK$230,000 in compensation.
The seven-woman jury found that all six emails sent by the couple about twins Jonathan and Caitlin Lu, as well as their father, school governor Carl Lu, between December 1 and 16, 2011, were defamatory, while four of them were also malicious.
When the forewoman delivered the verdict, Carl Lu and his wife, Frances, who had looked tense throughout the trial, smiled at each other. Chan and his family looked disappointed on the other side of the courtroom.
Jonathan and Caitlin Lu, now aged 20, were not in court yesterday as they have returned to the United States to continue their studies at Stanford University. As he left court, Carl Lu said he would be telling his children of the verdict soon.
In a statement outside the court, the Lu family's lawyer said: "The verdict is more than a clearing of a personal injustice. The jury's decision sends a clear message that adults cannot maliciously defame innocent children without consequences. We hope that no family will have to endure such a painful ordeal."