A male primary school teacher is suspected of molesting two Grade 5 girls during a school activity, including asking them to sit on his lap and then touching their breasts, waist, and thighs. After one victim posted the incident on WeChat Moments, other teachers demanded that the post be deleted. The teacher also asked the students who witnessed the incident to remain silent. The teacher was found guilty of four counts, including indecent assault and attempted perverting the course of justice, at the District Court today (31st). The defendant, claiming his wife gave birth this morning, requested bail pending sentencing. However, Judge Lo Kit-yee declined and remanded him in custody until September 22nd pending the victim’s trauma report.
Convicted of 4 of 5 charges
The defendant, Wong Fai-man (31 years old, resigned), was originally charged with five offences, including four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was accused of indecently assaulting 12-year-old girl X three times at a primary school in Tin Shui Wai between March and May 19, 2023; indecently assaulting 11-year-old girl Y in April of the same year; and, on May 22 of the same year, of doing an act or a series of acts tending to pervert the course of justice by instructing A and B to conceal the fact that the defendant had indecently assaulted X. After trial, the defendant was found not guilty of the charge of indecent assault on Y, resulting in only four counts.
Classmates A and B both saw the defendant holding X’s thighs.
In her ruling, Judge Lo Kit-yee noted that the victim X and the classmates who witnessed the incident gave consistent accounts of the indecent assault, their testimonies were direct and clear, and they remained unwavering under cross-examination. Regarding the defendant touching X’s thigh during an after-school activity, classmates A and B both claimed to have witnessed the defendant holding X and sitting on her thigh, then touching her thigh and pinching her waist.
Y witnessed X’s expression of embarrassment when she was assaulted.
The judge said the defendant’s claim that he was selecting students for various tasks in a future science competition that day, but he left X alone to test her drawing skills, was unreasonable. He also accepted X’s claim that the defendant touched her breast while they were alone. Regarding the defendant touching X’s thigh in class, the judge noted that classmate Y also witnessed the incident and saw X’s embarrassment, accepting the incident as true and convicting the defendant of two counts of indecent assault.
Furthermore, the defendant was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice by telling two witnesses to keep quiet after X posted about the incident.
Witness acquitted of one indecent assault charge because she failed to state the date of the incident.
As for the defendant’s indecent assault charge of touching Y’s breast, the judge noted that the witness was unable to state the date of the incident, but the charge sheet did specify the date, so he granted the defendant a technical acquittal.
He had asked two students not to report him to clear his name.
The prosecution’s opening statement stated that during an after-school activity, the defendant asked a 12-year-old girl, X, to sit on his lap and grope her breasts and waist. After the girl exposed the incident in a WeChat post, the male teacher asked the two students who witnessed it not to report him to “clear his name.”
In his defense, the defendant stated that being a teacher had always been his dream. He taught General Studies and Computer Science at school and had previously provided sex education. He knew that X and Y came from broken families.
Case No.: DCCC 1151/2023
