3 Hongkongers convicted for assault after soaking policemen at Thai New Year festival

Court remands taxi driver, clerk and steel fixer to await sentencing, saying their actions went beyond mere ‘horseplay’ at Songkran festivities

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(From left) Tsang Wai-shing, Yuen Tsz-kin and Ip Ka-kin at Kowloon City Court in August. The trio have been convicted of assault after soaking policemen with water guns at the Songkran Festival in 2023. Photo: Brian Wong

Published: 8:52pm, 16 Oct 2024Updated: 2:01pm, 17 Oct 2024

Three men have been remanded in custody to await sentencing for soaking police officers and journalists with water guns during a Thai New Year celebration in Hong Kong last year.

Kowloon City Court on Wednesday convicted the trio of six assault charges after ruling their persistent behaviour during the Songkran festival in the same district was more than mere “rough horseplay” as contended by the defence.

Taxi driver Tsang Wai-shing and clerk Ip Ka-kin, both 27, and steel fixer Yuen Tsz-kin, 32, were found to have targeted three auxiliary police constables and two journalists from the city’s biggest free-to-air broadcaster TVB by splashing water at them against their wishes on April 9, 2023.

Tsang, known by his alias “Brave Dog” on social media, and Yuen were also convicted of attacking a TVB cameraman on the same day.

Magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai said the defendants had “definitely crossed the boundary for acceptable conduct”, even though a participant would normally expect to be drenched in a festival where the act of pouring water symbolises the removal of sins and bad luck in Thai tradition.

Chan said the trio must have intended to make unlawful physical contact with their targets by repeatedly shooting water jets at their faces from close range.