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A 57-year-old taxi driver, who was serving as an off-duty auxiliary police officer at the time of the incident, has been cleared of an indecent exposure charge.
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An Eastern Magistrates' Courts judge acquitted the man after identifying significant inconsistencies in a female passenger's testimony regarding the alleged event inside his vehicle in Happy Valley last September.
The defendant, Ng Wing-man, faced a charge of indecent behavior in a public place for allegedly exposing himself without lawful authority or excuse while driving near the Happy Valley Racecourse on September 1, 2025.
Following a trial, Magistrate Ko Wai-hung ruled that the prosecution failed to establish a reliable case.
The magistrate stated that the court could not trust the sole testimony of the female passenger, identified in court as X, due to major discrepancies between her statements on the stand and her initial police reports.
Upon learning of his acquittal, the defendant bowed to the magistrate with his hands pressed together, and the court subsequently approved the defense's application to cover legal costs.
The prosecution relied entirely on the passenger's account, but the magistrate detailed several critical contradictions.
Audio recordings of her emergency call revealed that she initially used uncertain language, telling the police dispatcher that the driver appeared to be performing an indecent act and that it seemed something was protruding.
She only specified the exact nature of the exposure when explicitly prompted by the dispatcher.
The magistrate questioned why she did not report the details with certainty during the initial call if she was as confident as she claimed to be while testifying in court.
Additional contradictions emerged regarding the dispatcher's instructions during the incident.
While police records indicated the passenger agreed to the dispatcher's suggestion to halt the vehicle, she later testified in court that she had refused the advice because the taxi was driving on a flyover.
Factoring in the timeline of the emergency call and the vehicle's driving logs, the magistrate concluded her version of events lacked credibility, making it impossible to confidently rule that she witnessed the alleged act.
The court also addressed the defendant's statements to law enforcement. During a video-recorded police interview, the driver mentioned that he might have simply been scratching an itch, an explanation the magistrate determined did not constitute a confession.
According to the undisputed facts of the case, the passenger and the driver were strangers prior to the incident.
She hailed his taxi in Central that morning, and just before ten o'clock, she contacted emergency services. The vehicle eventually came to a stop on Yik Yam Street in Happy Valley, where responding officers arrested the driver.
Throughout the investigation, the defendant maintained his innocence, informing police upon his arrest that he was solely focused on driving and had committed no wrongdoing.
