Hong Kong protests: private tutor sentenced to 4 years in jail for pipe bomb possession
- Leo Wong, 22, admitted to possession of explosives after police found improvised device in subdivided flat, marking first discovery of its kind locally
- Judge finds it highly probable the defendant had intended to deploy the pipe bomb at a Hong Kong protest
A private tutor who hid a pipe bomb in a Hong Kong subdivided flat has been jailed for four years after a judge ruled it highly probable the accused intended to use the home-made device at a protest.
Leo Wong Kai-hin pleaded guilty in the District Court last month to storing a 20cm metal pipe containing 3.3 grams of high explosives at Lee Man Building in Mong Kok in January 2020.
Sentencing Wong on Monday, four days before his 23rd birthday, Judge Adriana Noelle Tse said the accused had posed a serious threat to public safety by placing the potentially lethal bomb next to highly flammable liquid in a densely populated area of the city.
“There was a high probability that the pipe bomb would be used in public events,” Tse said.
The judge found no reason to reduce Wong’s jail term on the grounds of his young age.
Tse added that given how he stored the pipe bomb she did not consider him as responsible and kind-hearted as he was described by his former employer and friends in their mitigation letters.
The court earlier heard that Wong, who was awarded a bachelor’s degree in creative media at the Community College of City University in 2019, was found with a key to the subdivided flat on January 14 last year. Police had received information that the tutor was involved in a bomb plot.