Man jailed 4 weeks for grabbing passerby by the neck and attempting to kiss her

A Hong Kong man accused of grabbing the neck of a female passerby and attempting to kiss her has been sentenced to four weeks in prison for indecent assault.

Fung Ho-yin, 29, appeared at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday, The Witness reported.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent assault stemming from an incident in the early hours of Tuesday in Shau Kei Wan.

Fung was sitting on a bench in a park on Nam On Street at around 1am that day when a woman – known to the court as X – walked past him, according to the prosecution.

Fung first attempted to take a photo of X. He then stood up and followed her, and wrapped his left arm around X’s neck while using his other arm to touch her chest.

He also tried to kiss her, the prosecution said. X managed to escape and screamed for help.

She got the attention of a man inside a nearby gym, who ran out and helped her. X then called the police.

Officers arrived at the scene and arrested Fung, who admitted under police caution that he had committed the offence out of impulse, The Witness reported.

He told police he was attracted to X’s miniskirt and hoped to get close to and speak with her. But X noticed him approach and told him to go away, he said.

See also: Hong Kong court acquits gov’t statistician who followed, photographed girl during school open day

Handing down the sentence, Magistrate Kestrel Lam said the incident occurred in the quiet of the night, and that the consequences would have been hard to predict if nobody had come forward. He said that even though Fung had no criminal record, this was a serious case that warranted imprisonment, Ming Pao reported.

Indecent assault is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment, although jail terms in magistrates’ courts are capped at two years for a single offence.

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Hillary Leung is a journalist at Hong Kong Free Press, where she reports on local politics and social issues, and assists with editing. Since joining in late 2021, she has covered the Covid-19 pandemic, political court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial, and challenges faced by minority communities.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hillary completed her undergraduate degree in journalism and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She worked at TIME Magazine in 2019, where she wrote about Asia and overnight US news before turning her focus to the protests that began that summer. At Coconuts Hong Kong, she covered general news and wrote features, including about a Black Lives Matter march that drew controversy amid the local pro-democracy movement and two sisters who were born to a domestic worker and lived undocumented for 30 years in Hong Kong.