Hong Kong man gets four months in jail over Lennon Wall attack during protests last year

Defence lawyers plead for leniency as Hui Ching-ngai, father of an eight-year-old girl, had suffered a loss of income since the unrest erupted

But acting principal magistrate Ivy Chui found the offence serious, noting the defendant had three violence-related criminal records

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The Kwun Tong Law Courts Building. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 8:38pm, 7 May 2020Updated: 11:15pm, 7 May 2020

A Hong Kong decorator who suffered a loss of income during anti-government protests was sentenced to four months’ jail for attacking a man following a row over posting messages on a so-called Lennon Wall last year.

Kwun Tong Court heard that around 10pm on August 26, Hui Ching-ngai engaged in a heated argument with Ho Chin-leng, who saw Hui tearing down posters from a Lennon Wall inside a pedestrian tunnel in Tseung Kwan O.

Hui, 39, who was drunk, picked up a broom and an umbrella from the ground and attacked 42-year-old Ho, leaving him with bruises on his left shoulder and right cheek, and swelling on the forehead.

On Thursday, Hui pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm before acting principal magistrate Ivy Chui Yee-mei.

The Lennon Walls, which originated in Prague in the 1980s, sprang up across the city last year where supporters of the protest movement – sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill – wrote notes of encouragement and slogans.

Defence lawyers pleaded for leniency on the grounds that Hui, the father of an eight-year-old girl, had suffered a loss of income since the protests erupted last year, before adding that the assault was not premeditated.