Glue or poo? Smelly substance on Hong Kong lawmaker Kenneth Leung’s jeans tested in laboratory

What at first appeared to be human faeces rubbed on the underside of a lawmaker’s desk in a suspected targeted attack last Saturday in the Legislative Council was more likely to have been glue, the legislature’s president confirmed yesterday.

Jasper Tsang Yok-sing was speaking after receiving reports from two laboratories and the government’s forensic science division. But pan-democrat Kenneth Leung, the apparent victim, was not convinced by the finding .

“I can’t say for sure who is right. I still believe it was a faecal smell … but if you rub your jeans repeatedly with alcohol, I would be surprised if there is still any bacterium in the sample,” said the representative for the accountancy sector.

Leung, of the Professional Commons, was attending a meeting in a Legco conference room on Saturday morning when he discovered that something that looked like faeces had been rubbed on the underside of his desk, and some of it rubbed off on his jeans. He also smelled something foul.

The incident took place days after an explosion outside the premises prompted a decision to step up security.

However, Tsang said: “The private laboratories failed to find the bacteria that are usually present in faecal matter, so perhaps the results are not conclusive. But what we can say is … that there is no evidence whatsoever which can indicate that the stain was caused by faecal matter.

“The government laboratory’s forensic science division found traces of a material called urea formaldehyde, which is usually used in … adhesive substances used in woodwork.”