A 65-year-old repeat sex offender in Hong Kong has been jailed after he was seen groping a secondary school student on a bus two months ago in a widely circulated online video.
West Kowloon Court on Tuesday sentenced former household hardware salesman William Wu Yiu-shing to four months in prison for the offence, which garnered widespread attention after a pedestrian outside the bus filmed the attack and uploaded the video to social media.
Wu, who had three prior convictions for indecent assault, pleaded guilty to the same offence last month.
He had attacked the 17-year-old Form Three student as the KMB double-decker bus stopped at the intersection of Mong Kok Road and Sai Yeung Choi Street South at around 12.10pm on June 5.
In the 37-second video, the defendant, dressed in a white tank top, was seen reaching his left arm forward to touch the girl’s chest. She was seated in the row directly in front of him on the upper deck of the bus.
Wu appeared not to hear verbal warnings from onlookers on the street and continued with the assault as the bus drove away.
The girl later told police that she felt her armpit being touched for a few seconds and saw the defendant trying to grab her. She added that she was too scared to respond and rushed home after the incident.
Police arrested Wu at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge border checkpoint later that day when the suspect returned from Macau. He admitted committing the offence to satisfy his sexual desires.
A duty lawyer representing Wu said on Tuesday that the defendant had frankly acknowledged his wrongdoing and admitted he had committed previous offences in a similar fashion.
The defendant was also willing to undergo psychological treatment as part of his rehabilitation, the lawyer added.
Wu, who has been remanded in custody since being prosecuted on June 8, is expected to be eligible for early release in about a month.
Indecent assault is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment, but capped at two years when the case is heard by a magistrate. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
