EJ Insight » Hong Kong
Legislator Leung Yiu-chung (inset) is taking the cudgels for the Cable TV customer, surnamed Wong, in his fight for a police investigation into false accusations against him. Photos: HKEJ, Apple Daily
A legislator is demanding a public apology from the Hong Kong police over their alleged mishandling of an assault case involving a Cable TV subscriber and two of its employees.
Leung Yiu-chung, a pro-labor lawmaker, said the police should also explain why they shut down a complaint by the customer about false accusations after the charges against him had been dismissed by a judge, Apple Daily reports.
The case stemmed from a July 2012 incident in which the customer, surnamed Wong, and the two Cable TV employees quarrelled over the former’s decision to stop his subscription.
Wong had gone to Cable TV’s Sham Shui Po branch to renew his contract.
But he said he decided to cancel it after seeing the two staffers abuse an elderly man who had come to have a decoder replaced.
An altercation with the staffers followed after which the latter reported to the police that they had been assaulted by Wong.
The police pressed charges on the basis of CCTV evidence.
When the case came to trial in the Kwung Tong magistrates’ court, the judge took less than 40 minutes to review the clip and dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.
The magistrate said the plaintiffs might have conspired to give false statements.
Armed with a voice recording of the court proceedings, Wong went to the Sham Shui Po police station and demanded an investigation into the plaintiffs for making false accusations and perverting the course of justice.
Four months later, Wong said he was told that his complaint had been classified as a “request for police assistance”.
Meanwhile, he was never asked to give a statement to the police, Wong said.
Subsequently, he received a letter from the police that an investigation into the alleged assault complaint had been completed and he would not be prosecuted.
There was no mention of his complaint against the two Cable TV employees, he said.
Wong was told that the police had received an opinion from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that there was not enough evidence to “press charges against any persons”.
Wong said he later found out that the police were never in touch with the DOJ.
He took his complaint to the Complaints Against Police Office (CAPO) which promised to investigate.
A month later, CAPO came back saying he would not be prosecuted, Wong said.
Again, there was no mention of the particular complaint against the Cable TV employees he had wanted investigated, he said.
Wong said he has lost faith in the police and his frustrations are mounting after being told that the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) does not handle personal complaints.
Taking the cudgels for Wong, Leung said the IPCC has failed to live up to its responsibility as an independent police watchdog.
He said it should open a separate channel for public complaints and not merely handle cases referred by CAPO.
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Cleared defendant says police used DOJ to skirt complaint http://www.ejinsight.com/20151204-cleared-defendant-says-police-used-doj-to-skirt-complaint/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20151204-cleared-defendant-says-police-used-doj-to-skirt-complaint
