Convictions upheld for four police officers who framed street sleeper for drug possession

The Court of Appeal on Thursday rejected appeals by four police officers convicted of attempting to obstruct justice during an anti-drug operation targeting street sleepers in Sham Shui Po six years ago.

The case involved eight officers accused of misconduct during operations at Tung Chau Street Park in February 2020. Six were convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice and jailed for between 25 and 41 months, while two were acquitted.

The four appellants were Leung Fei-pang, Pong Chun-sze, Wan Pak-sze and Chan Sau-yip. All challenged their sentences, while Leung, Pong and Chan also sought to overturn their convictions.

The court heard the four defendants claimed that covering a CCTV camera was not intended to obstruct justice, but merely to prevent filming of officers' misconduct. Since the drug search itself involved no wrongdoing, they argued covering the camera did not affect the prosecution, and thus should not constitute perverting the course of justice.

High Court judges Derek Pang Wai-cheong, Keith Yeung Kar-hung, and Andrew Chan Hing-wai ruled that deliberately obscuring the CCTV for about 40 minutes had no purpose other than to hide potential police misconduct–a clear intent to pervert justice. 

The judges described their grounds of argument as "far-fetched and completely untenable," rejecting the officers' appeals.

The judges also rejected mitigation based on the officers’ previous good character and claims that some had acted under orders from superiors.

They said good character carried “negligible” weight in a serious case involving the fabrication of evidence against innocent people and damage to public confidence in the justice system.

The court said society expected police officers to prevent and investigate crime, but framing innocent people represented another form of wrongdoing that undermined the rule of law.

It upheld the original sentences, finding that the trial judge’s sentencing approach and adjustments for each officer’s level of culpability were reasonable. All applications for permission to appeal and the related appeals were dismissed.
 

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