A student at a Hong Kong international school who admitted groping a female peer twice during a school trip has been given a conditional discharge, after the victim stopped testifying against him midway through the trial. The victim, now 18, ceased giving evidence at Eastern Court on Wednesday afternoon, half a day after she began detailing how she was molested by the teenager while visiting a mainland Chinese city in 2018. She initially testified that the 18-year-old defendant had cuddled her and touched her buttocks when the two were listening to music inside a hotel room on the night of January 31. Later, she told prosecutors she would not give further evidence concerning another incident, where the student touched her genitals and attempted to have sex with her as she slept two days later. Without elaborating, prosecutors said they would offer no further evidence and agreed to end the case with the student's conditional discharge because of “a change of circumstances”. On Thursday, Magistrate Ho Chun-yiu held the student on a HK$2,000 (US$258) bond over two counts of indecent assault, and ordered him to maintain good behaviour without committing further sexual offences for the next 12 months. “You can consider yourself very lucky this time. This is a very serious offence,” the magistrate told the student. “Please treasure this chance, and don't do it again.” Defence lawyer Cheng Huan SC told the court that the defendant wished to apologise to the victim, who is now studying in Britain. The student’s father refused to comment on the court’s ruling outside court. Hong Kong’s equality watchdog to set up unit combating sexual harassment According to the prosecution’s summary of the case, with which the student agreed, he and the victim used to be very good friends but had never entered into a romantic relationship. On the night of January 31, the defendant, who was 16, went to the hotel room of the victim, who was then aged 15, and touched her body while no one else was in the room. The next day, the victim told her female schoolmate about the incident and asked the defendant not to repeat his actions. The defendant apologised and promised not to do so again. However, he went on to grope the victim again when he visited her room on the night of February 2. The victim was scared and did not know how to react on both occasions. She has required psychological counselling as a result of the incidents. After returning to Hong Kong, she confronted the defendant at the school and secretly taped their conversation, where the defendant confessed to wrongdoing. In April, she told the school counsellor about the crimes but it took another four months for the case to be reported to police, and an extra two months before the defendant’s arrest. The victim’s mother has lodged complaints with the school, accusing it of not taking sufficient steps to protect her daughter and prevent further occurrences of the crime.