Police officers charged with assaulting Ken Tsang object to news footage being used as evidence

The four pieces of footage were said to have captured the chain of events leading to the moment the seven allegedly assaulted Tsang

CHRIS.LAU@SCMP.COM

UPDATED : Thursday, 02 June, 2016, 5:36pm

The defence counsel for seven policemen accused of maliciously assaulting activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu during the 2014 Occupy protests, officially raised an objection in court against prosecutors’ attempt to submit news footage as court evidence.

The four pieces of footage - from television stations TVB, ATV, Now TV, and newspaper Apple Daily - purportedly captured the chain of events leading to the moment the seven allegedly assaulted Tsang, deputy director of public prosecutions David Leung Cheuk-yin told the District Court on Thursday.

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The seven policemen are Chief Inspector Wong Cho-shing, 48, Senior Inspector Lau Cheuk-ngai, 29, Detective Sergeant Pak Wing-bun, 42, and constables Lau Hing-pui, 38, Chan Siu-tan, 31, Kwan Ka-ho, 32, and Wong Wai-ho, 36, who face one joint count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent on Tsang. Chan faces one extra count of common assault for allegedly assaulting Tsang in the interview room of a police station on a separate occasion.

They pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prosecuting, Leung alleged the ATV and Now TV news footage showed how Tsang was arrested and passed along among a number of police officers. “That started the various involvement of the seven defendants,” he said.

He then said TVB footage showed Tsang being escorted by six officers.

Another TVB clip, he alleged, shows how the seven took Tsang to the alleged location of his offence “and also assaulted him”.

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Senior counsel Lawrence Lok Ying-kam, for Wong, said the prosecutors failed to prove the originality of the videos and that they had not been tampered with, thereby asking the court not to admit the footage as evidence.

But Leung argued that some of the footage was timestamped by the news reporter. The witnesses, including TVB staff, will be called to testify to the chain of events, he said.

It is alleged that the seven “unlawfully and maliciously” caused grievous bodily harm to Tsang with intent, outside a pump station near Lung Wui Road in Admiralty on October 15 2014.

http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1962595/police-officers-charged-assaulting-ken-tsang-object-news