Hong Kong protests: teacher cleared on weapons charge after court accepts laser pointers could be for stargazing
- Lau Kit-yee cites old Instagram posts of her stargazing experiences in successful defence against accusation she took laser pens to anti-police protest to injure others
- Acquitting 23-year-old of possessing offensive weapons in a public place, magistrate says he ‘cannot refute’ her claim she was a keen stargazer
Lau Kit-yee, 23, was accused in Kowloon City Court of having the two devices on her with a view to injuring others on August 11, 2019, when more than 100 protesters descended on Sham Shui Po Police Station.
But the court on Thursday found Lau not guilty partly on the basis that a collection of astronomy images uploaded to her Instagram account seven years ago suggested she was indeed an observer of celestial objects long before the social unrest.
Lau was arrested on the night of the protest near the police station, where people had gathered to vent their anger over the force’s handling of demonstrations initially triggered by the now-scrapped extradition bill.
She was found carrying two laser pointers, a pair of goggles, face masks, a litre of saline solution, bandages and plastic gloves in her backpack when she was intercepted at a junction 450 metres away from the police premises.
The defendant testified that she had brought the laser pointers with her because she planned to view the sky with her friend that night.
She also explained to the court how the tools were used for astronomy and submitted images of her Instagram posts from 2014, in which she shared her stargazing experiences.