Actress known for quick temper gets two weeks for kicking drama

ATV actress Sit Ying-yi has been sentenced to two weeks in jail for kicking her neighbor in Yuen Long after being reprimanded for not wearing a mask.

Sit, 37, was also fined HK$5,000 for violating the mask mandate. She is out on bail.

Sit pleaded guilty to one count of common assault and failing to wear a mask in a specified public place before principal magistrate Don So Man-lung at Tuen Mun Magistrates' Court yesterday.

The court heard that Sit got into an argument at the lift lobby of Yuen Ping House, Long Ping Estate, on September 30 last year after a female neighbor saw her maskless and reminded her to put one on.

Sit ignored her and tried to flee the scene. But an argument ensued, with Sit slapping the neighbor's hand to try to stop her from filming with her mobile. Sit later kicked her in the stomach.

The neighbor did not go to a doctor but said she felt pain in her right hand and stomach.

Sit was eventually arrested on February 11.

Under caution, she had admitted that she committed the crime, saying she hit the neighbor's arm and kicked her as she would not let her go and kept filming.

During mitigation, the defense counsel said Sit regretted her behavior and had taken responsibility for her actions immediately after being arrested.

The counsel said Sit committed the crime while emotionally unstable and violated the mask mandate only because she was going for a run. The counsel asked the court for a bind-over order as an alternative to jail given that the neighbor was only mildly injured.

The counsel added that Sit is earning around HK$6,000 to HK$10,000 a month.

Sit looked frightened upon hearing her sentence and was taken by court police to the detention room.

Her manager, who was sitting at the gallery, immediately contacted senior management of ATV to discuss solutions.

Sit then applied for bail pending appeal in the afternoon and it was granted by So. She left the courtroom at around 2pm.

She said: "I just want to go back [home] and get some rest."

Her manager said Sit's management agent would bear the legal cost

Sit joined the Miss Asia Pageant in 2021 and became popular with viewers for her temperament and style. She won the Miss Best Efforts award in the finals even though she had been eliminated early on.

The former terrestrial TV station ATV, or Asia Television Ltd, is now a studio whose shows and content are distributed through the station's app and through over-the-top services after its license was banned from renewal in 2015. It eventually disappeared from the airwaves on April 1, 2016.