A Hong Kong court has ordered a civil servant at public broadcaster RTHK to complete 160 hours of community service after he admitted taking upskirt footage of a woman in public.
Chong Tak-yin, an assistant chief assignment editor in RTHK’s Chinese news and current affairs division, was sentenced on Wednesday at West Kowloon Court after pleading guilty to one count of unlawful recording or observation of intimate parts.
The 57-year-old told arresting officers the offence was “a momentary lapse of judgment” driven by sexual impulse when he filmed the woman in a skirt in Mong Kok on November 14 last year.
According to court documents, patrolling officers spotted him suspiciously following the woman. A stop and search found a video on his phone showing the woman’s lower body.
At an earlier hearing, defence counsel Joe Chan Wai-yin said Chong was married with two sons and earned about HK$90,000 (US$11,480) a month as the family’s sole breadwinner.
He had initially intended to plead not guilty but changed his mind before trial, saying he wanted to set a good example for his children by owning up to his mistake and accepting the consequences.
A probation officer’s assessment noted that Chong had sought professional help, found the risk of reoffending to be low and described the incident as a one-off.
Magistrate Jeffrey Sze Cho-yiu accepted the recommendation to impose a community service order.
The South China Morning Post has contacted RTHK for comment. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
