Hong Kong court acquits Rosaryhill School secondary student accused of slashing schoolmate’s face with pen
- Magistrate questions both teenagers’ versions of the incident but rules in favour of the 17-year-old defendant
- ‘I cannot be sure where the truth lies,’ she says. ‘The benefit of doubt goes to the defendant’
A secondary school pupil accused of slashing a schoolmate’s face with a pen over a grudge was acquitted by a Hong Kong court on Thursday.
Deputy Magistrate Vivian Wong Wing-man of Eastern Court questioned both teenagers’ versions of the incident but ruled in favour of the 17-year-old defendant, Aramiz Julyan Zita Delfino.
Wong found Delfino’s account of his fight with Choi Chak-sum, 16 – which took place on April 11 inside Rosaryhill School – “very suspicious”.
Even so, she ruled in his favour after finding that Choi, the prosecution’s only witness who could detail how Delfino carried out the attack, gave what she considered an unreliable account of the events.
Prosecutors said the dispute was started by an exchange between the two students, who did not know each other, at a bus stop on Stubbs Road in Happy Valley on April 9. Choi accused Delfino of directing vulgar language at him. But Delfino, an ethnic Filipino, said he was only practising a Cantonese curse taught to him by a friend.
The court heard when the two met inside a dressing room at the school two days later, Delfino cut Choi’s face with the pen, leaving two deep lacerations on his left cheek. Choi was left with two scars that remained clearly visible when he gave evidence at trial.