Barber assistant jailed for four years for rioting outside Tuen Mun Town Hall

A 23-year-old barber assistant was on Tuesday sentenced to four years in jail for rioting in Tuen Mun during anti-fugitive protests in 2019.

The case, which was at the District Court-level, was heard at the West Kowloon Court today.

Yip Ho-hin, 23, was convicted in January this year of rioting, assaulting a police officer and possessing an instrument fit for unlawful purposes during a protest outside Tuen Mun Town Hall on October 1, 2019.

His two co-defendants were previously acquitted and set free after being cleared of taking part in an unlawful assembly due to a lack of evidence.

During the sentencing, deputy district judge Ko Wai-hung said Yip’s behavior could have provoked others to use violence against the cops, even though Yip claimed that he only assaulted a police officer after seeing his girlfriend being subdued.

Ko also said Yip has disregards the law, added that the more violent acts happened after Yip’s arrest and that he did not play a leading role in the riot or plan his attack.

Ko added that Yip’s action of charging towards a group of police officers had encouraged others present at the scene to commit more violent actions, which eventually led to a total of nine police officers and journalists injured, and cost the Tuen Mun Town Hall HK$1.2 million for repair.

Yip was then sentenced to four years for rioting, six weeks for assaulting a police officer and three months for carrying the spray paint for unlawful purposes but to run concurrently.

The court earlier heard that police were standing by inside the Tuen Mun Town Hall, while hundreds of protesters gathering outside the hall on the afternoon of October 1, 2019, with some hitting the glass doors.

Some protesters also pasted portraits of politicians on the floor and stepped on them, while some threw joss papers at the National Day decoration outside the Tuen Mun Public Library, which is next to the town hall.

The protest later escalated into a riot after protesters attacked police officers in a bid to free a woman who was subdued by the police at the Tuen Mun Civic Square, which is outside the town hall.

Yip was seen to have held a rod-shaped object charged towards the police and attacked an officer’s left shoulder and stomach.

He was then subdued and found to have carried two cans of spray paints upon subsequent search, which he later admitted that he intended to spray paint words on walls.