Hong Kong protests: 2 teenagers sentenced to correctional training, hard labour for vandalising bakery during 2019 protests
- Student, 18, and boy, 15, plead guilty to count of criminal damage for attack on Arome Bakery in Tseung Kwan O Plaza
- Accused blinded by ‘momentary misjudgment’ and believed use of violence could address problems in society, judge says
Two teenagers have been sentenced to correctional training for vandalising a bakery operated by a restaurant chain deemed supportive of the government and police during the protests in Hong Kong three years ago.
Student Lau Chin-wang, 18, and a 15-year-old boy, who has dropped out of school, returned to the District Court on Tuesday to be sentenced over the flash mob style attack on the Arome Bakery in Tseung Kwan O Plaza in eastern Kowloon on August 7, 2020.
The duo were among five adolescent boys who targeted the shop run by catering giant Maxim’s Group, which became a frequent target during the social unrest after its founder’s daughter, Annie Wu Suk-ching, openly criticised the protest movement.
The court heard the five had lit a fire on the floor, set fire to a table, defaced four electronic devices, smashed a wooden door and a showcase in the early morning rampage that cost the operator HK$40,140 to repair.
Security footage from the shopping centre captured the moments when the five stormed the shop at around 2.35am wearing black clothes and facial coverings.
Lau and his underage accomplice, who were 16 and 14 respectively at the time of the offence, were seen damaging a cash register. The five fled the scene a minute later.
Police arrested the pair later that month and seized from them two press cards bearing their names issued by online news portals CLSHK and SS Times, both of which have ceased operation.