HK attack caught on camera phone
IT was a vicious case of bullying.
A group of teenage girls ruthlessly beat up a 12-year-old girl, stripped her down to her panties and taped the attack with a handphone two years ago.
And all because they said she had stolen a T-shirt, reported The Standard.
A Hong Kong Magistrates' Court ordered Wong Ching-yan, now 18, to be put on 24 months' probation.
The magistrate said the gang members were bullies whose actions were beyond comprehension. He called the assault as a serious crime, saying the defendants lacked basic respect for others.
Wong and sisters Cheung Ka-man, 17, and Cheung Ka-ying, 16, had pleaded guilty to a string of charges, including indecent conduct towards a child under 16, common assault and criminal intimidation.
Wong, the oldest of the gang members, wept as she read out a handwritten letter in the court. She expressed remorse for what she had done and asked the victim for forgiveness.
The magistrate praised Wong for her repentance, noting that she had also attended counselling sessions.
However, he said the Cheung sisters were still unremorseful, involved in drug abuse and had not changed their attitude.
The sisters were remanded in custody for sentencing later this month.
The magistrate said Cheung Ka-man was 'irresponsible' for rejecting a probation officer's suggestion that she stay in a halfway house if she wanted to get out of custody early.
The magistrate told her: 'Don't blame the court for not giving you a chance with your nonchalant attitude.'
The court had heard that the Cheung sisters were acquaintances of the victim and had even stayed at her home.
The incident occurred between September and November 2005, when the victim, then 12 years old, was stopped at a Tin Shui Wai shopping mall by a teen gang, including the three defendants.
They accused the girl of stealing a T-shirt belonging to one of them.
The gang members then took her to a secluded spot in the mall where she was beaten up and forced to strip down to her panties.
The culprits videotaped the assault on a handphone and warned the victim her hand would be chopped off if she told anyone about it.
The case came to light a year later. The gang sent the girl's father a video clip of the attack a year after it happened, and he went to the police.
Another member of the gang - a 15-year-old girl - was acquitted on a charge of indecent conduct because of lack of evidence.
source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...46629,00.html?