Hong Kong court gives drunk, disorderly off-duty police officer suspended jail sentence
Court convicts Chief Inspector Ann Yip, 53, after she had dispute with hospitalised mother and ‘shameful’ altercation with on-duty colleagues
A Hong Kong court has imposed a suspended jail sentence on a veteran police chief inspector for drunken behaviour in a hospital, with the presiding magistrate reprimanding her for bringing “shame” to the force.
Sha Tin Court on Friday convicted Ann Yip Man-yi, 53, of drunk and disorderly conduct at CUHK Medical Centre after a dispute with her hospitalised mother on the morning of October 22 last year.
Video evidence showed Yip, an assistant commander in Yuen Long district before her suspension, had thrown a tantrum inside a ward and accused five officers called to the scene of acting “arrogantly” and disrespecting their profession.
The defendant called the officers “scoundrels” and questioned why they treated her like “yellow-ribbon rioters”, a derogatory phrase used to refer to anti-government protesters during the 2019 social unrest.
She could not speak coherently at times during the 77-minute altercation, mixing her native Cantonese with English and Japanese in her verbal exchanges with her on-duty colleagues.
Yip also threw objects and locked herself inside a room before she was arrested.
She admitted she had drunk a can of beer hours before the ruckus but maintained she was not the sort to “suddenly become someone different” due to intoxication.