Ex-Hong Kong teacher jailed 18 months for molesting student
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
A former Hong Kong teacher was sentenced at Tsuen Wan Court on Monday to 18 months in prison after being convicted of two counts of indecent assault involving a student who was 15 at the time of the offences in 2020.
District Judge Gary Lam Kar-yan said the case was serious and that there was no room for a reduced sentence, even though it was the defendant’s first offence.
Key Points
- Defendant Cheng Hon-sze, now 32, was found guilty of groping the student and making her perform an obscene act in May and October 2020.
- The court imposed one year in jail for each indecent assault count, with the terms partly consecutive, producing a total sentence of 18 months.
- Cheng was acquitted on seven other indecent assault counts after the court found the girl had not expressly refused advances or the acts were not inherently indecent.
- The defendant had earlier admitted repeatedly engaging in intimate acts with the victim in the school’s music storage room and other locations.
- Cheng had taught the girl in Forms One, Two and Four to Six, and also oversaw the school marching band in which she played trumpet.
Why It Matters
The case shows how courts may assess abuse allegations involving a teacher-student relationship by weighing age difference, power imbalance and psychological harm when setting sentence.
It also underlines the lasting impact described in the trauma report, which said the victim was still processing conflicting feelings toward someone she believed had both helped and hurt her.