The American banker was charged with assaulting a police officer for allegedly “saving his hand and foot”, the key video was destroyed and the witness was awarded a “good citizen” cash prize by the police.
In Hong Kong, a 35-year-old American banker was charged with assault and alternate common assault in December 2019 at the MTR Causeway Bay Station for attacking an off-duty police officer who was chasing a man suspected of “fare evasion” (failing to buy a ticket to enter the gate). The case was reopened at the Eastern District Court on Wednesday (February 3), and the defence applied to terminate the hearing as it said that some of the CCTV footage from the MTR station had been deleted due to police action and the trial would be unfair to the defendant; the defence also questioned the reasons for the “good citizen award” and cash payment to the witness when the case entered the judicial process. Magistrate Lam Hei-wai adjourned the case until March. (Liu Shaofeng reports)
The 35-year-old defendant, American banker Samuel Bickett, is accused of assaulting an off-duty police officer, as well as a man, Lo Chi Keung, in the execution of his duties at Exit F of Causeway Bay MTR Station on December 7, 2019. It is reported that on the day of the incident, a man involved in the Causeway Bay MTR station “jumped the gate”, off-duty police officers to chase and intercept, and that the defendant was involved in helping the “jumped” man to escape.
The case was originally scheduled to begin trial on December 9 last year, the defense lawyers in view of the previous disclosure of police information is insufficient, so that the plea of guilty is controversial, the defense formally applied to the court on Wednesday to schedule the first two disputes, including the termination of the hearing and disclosure of information.
The defense: the police admitted that one of the MTR closed-circuit television tapes have been destroyed
The defense earlier questioned the off-duty police involved in the use of excessive force against the man who jumped the gate, MTR closed-circuit television is the key evidence. But the defense to the prosecution to obtain CCTV footage, found that the police provide footage and the MTR records do not match.
According to the defense’s testimony, the MTR CCTV footage can show the off-duty police assaulting a young man, the day of the incident, the police went to the scene to film the camera, and then obtained a search warrant to search the MTR Corporation. After the police watched the MTR CCTV footage, the defense claimed that the police amended the search warrant to “target” the exclusion of the footage filmed at the gates, resulting in the lack of CCTV footage when the police collected evidence from the MTR Corporation, and finally the MTR Corporation destroyed the relevant footage. The defense claimed that the police had admitted in writing that they had intentionally destroyed the first set of CCTV footage and only provided the court with the second set of CCTV footage.
The prosecution explained that the MTR used its own system before it could play the footage, so the police, after searching for evidence, will get from the MTR considered useful footage into a readable file, the original file due to the date is long ago, the MTR system automatically deleted.
The defense challenged: the police awarded “good citizen awards” in cash to key witnesses after finding the case against them
On July 30, 2020, the defendant filed an application with the court, which included extensive evidence of the main assailant in the case and the plaintiff police officer’s violation of the law. About a week later, on August 6 last year, the police called the main witness of the case, Lo Chi Keung, and said that he was awarded the “Good Citizen Award” and paid the prize in cash.
The defense argued that the timing of the police’s presentation of the Good Citizen Award and payment to the eyewitness raised a serious question as to why the police suddenly decided to present the award to the witness and pay him the cash prize eight months after the incident and one week after going to court. The defense also claimed that the police and the Department of Justice refused to provide more information, including how the entire application was made, the value of the award, and the relevant communication documents.
In the absence of sufficient evidence and reasons, the defense applied to the court to terminate the hearing and requested the prosecution to disclose the details of the award to the witness Lo Chi Keung, the prosecution said it would provide the relevant documents to the court and the defense. After discussion, the court decided to deal with the defense’s application for termination of hearing on March 31. If the defense’s application for termination of hearing is not approved by the court, the case will be heard on April 23, and the trial is expected to last for three days, and the prosecution and defense will call witnesses to testify.
Recent Comments