Man admits he assaulted Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai with animal entrails during Umbrella Movement
Admission comes in court before the outspoken pro-democracy figure testifies how ‘wet and oily’ bags hit him as he left a street tent
A man has admitted throwing animal entrails at media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying at the Admiralty occupation site during the Umbrella Movement in November 2014.
The admission came as Yip Wing-chi, 44, pleaded guilty at the Eastern Court to one count of common assault while his co-defendants Chan Kwok-hung, 30, and Li Siu-lung, 45, denied the same charge.
Yip denied one other count of common assault on another person, while Chan further denied two assault charges.
READ MORE: Media tycoon Jimmy Lai never picks up phone, complain Hong Kong prosecutors
The incident took place at about 4:30pm on November 12, 2014, when Lai was about to leave a tent at Harcourt Road in Admiralty.
“Then I heard someone call my name,” Lai testified. “When I turned I felt there was a bag thrown at me. It was putrid and oily.”
The 67-year-old said about four to five more bags of what were later found to be animal entrails were thrown at him in the few seconds it took for him to turn and face his attackers.
Lai was not injured, but the attack splashed entrails across his face and stained his clothes as the bags hit various parts of his body.
“I was in a state of shock,” Lai continued. “Then I saw three people trying to leave [the scene].”
READ MORE: Trio throws rotten animal organs at Next Media chairman Jimmy Lai in Admiralty
He said his impression of his attackers was vague but he recalled seeing one of them being a built man with a ponytail.
The defendants all kept silent during police cautioned interviews.
A video played in court showed a man shouting “Hey, Lai Chee-ying” as two bags struck the Next Media group founder.
Lai recalled that one of the bags that hit him was about seven inches in diameter.
Prosecutor Gekko Lan Suet-ying told magistrate Lee Siu-ho that the three accused acted in a joint enterprise to plan and execute the attack on Lai, with the intent to harm him.
“The prosecution’s case is that all three defendants have a collective agreement to execute the assault,” she said. “There is no need to prove that all three took part in the actual throwing.”
Meanwhile, Chan and Yip’s counsel Francis Cheng pointed that Lai’s vision was blurred during the attack as Lai had confessed in his witness statement that “the first bag hit my face” and “my vision was blurred by the liquid.”
Lai also agreed with Cheng’s suggestion that he could not see the faces of the three people.
“Is that because your vision was blurred?” Cheng asked. Lai agreed.
Another defense counsel Kenneth Ho King-man, for Li, noted there were discrepancies in Lai’s description of where the bags hit him.
Lai explained that he might have mistakenly recalled such details as the bags struck him in quick succession, with the entire sequence lasting just about five to six seconds.
It was also alleged that Chan and Yip assaulted site marshal Alex Kwok Siu-kit, who testified that he was trying to prevent Lai’s attackers from leaving. Chan was said to have further assaulted another marshal Ricky Or Yiu-lam.
Both Kwok and Or later suffered minor injuries to their face, chest, arm and shoulder.
The hearing continues.
