Court orders 80 hours’ community service for youth who damaged election posters ‘out of playfulness’

A 23-year-old unemployed man who admitted tearing the corners of two election posters “out of playfulness” has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service, after a magistrate ruled that he acted without motive and posed a low risk of reoffending.

The defendant, Mo Chi-kit, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of criminal damage and was sentenced on Wednesday at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts.

Principal Magistrate Don So Man-lung said the defendant committed the offense without any underlying motive and purely “out of playfulness,” adding that probation and community service reports described him as a first-time offender with a low chance of reoffending.

The magistrate accepted the recommendations of the reports and imposed an 80-hour community service order.

According to the case facts, at around 6pm on November 19, 2025, Mo damaged two election posters belonging to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on a footbridge near Tong Mi Road and Argyle Street in Mong Kok. His actions were captured on closed-circuit television.

Police later discovered the damaged posters during patrols and, after reviewing CCTV footage, identified the suspect. Mo was intercepted on the street several days later and arrested. Under caution, he told officers that he had committed the act because he was “playing around.”

In mitigation, the defense said Mo had been on his way to visit his father at an elderly home on the day of the incident and had “carelessly torn the corner of the posters.”