A 68-year-old man has been cleared of assaulting an off-duty police sergeant during last year’s pro-democracy Occupy protests, after the court ruled that prosecution witnesses gave contradictory testimony.
The man, Chan So, walked free from Eastern Magistrates’ Court without testifying on Tuesday after deputy magistrate Peter Hui rejected two police officers’ testimony due to conflicting claims.
Chan was involved in a confrontation between a group of protesters and a Commercial Crime Bureau officer in Admiralty on October 3, 2014, the first week of the 79-day Occupy demonstrations.
An off-duty sergeant of the same bureau, who passed by the scene and decided to intervene, claimed that Chan pushed her chest. Chan reportedly tried to escape arrest but was eventually taken away by police.
Chan had earlier denied charges in a recorded interview, saying that he did not see the off-duty sergeant during the confrontation. He asked whether the alleged victim had confused him with another protester.
The alleged victim reportedly described the situation as critical when she went to help her colleague, who was surrounded and shouted at by protesters. However, her colleague testified that he was not in imminent danger as he was only observing from within the crowd.
In addition, the officer said in the first instance that he was unsure whether Chan touched the sergeant’s upper body, but later said that Chan might have done so.
Magistrate Hui rejected his claim, saying that since the alleged victim was standing behind her colleague, Chan would not have been able to reach past the crowd and push her.
Hui said that the two examples he gave were “just the tip of the iceberg” and there were more conflicting claims in the two officers’ testimony. He therefore ruled that Chan was not guilty of common assault.
