A 37-year-old man who incited others to surround Sun Uk Ling holding center by claiming female detainees were gang-raped there has been imprisoned for 13 months after a review.

Poon Yung-wai had been found guilty of one count of inciting others to participate in an unlawful assembly and was sentenced to 160 hours of community service by Peony Wong Nga-yan at Eastern magistrates' courts on November 3.

The court of appeal heard the case yesterday after the Department of Justice applied for a review of the sentence.

Poon had in September 2019 sent multiple claims to a Facebook group, saying protesters at the holding center were raped and abused or even killed by police.

But he later admitted the contents were fake and said he posted false information to get more "likes," the court heard.

Three court of appeal judges - Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, Derek Pang Wai-cheong and Maggie Poon Man-kay - ruled yesterday that magistrate Wong was wrong in principle and the sentence was "obviously too lenient."

They said imprisonment was inevitable given the content of his Facebook posts, attacks on law enforcers and the risk of causing public disorder.

Senior public prosecutor Ivan Cheung Cheuk-kan said Poon also claimed he had a classmate who was a police officer to increase his credibility and smear police.

Barrister Jeffrey Tam Chun-kit, who represented Poon, said many people online questioned the authenticity of Poon's posts and asked him to check the facts, indicating his claims would have little impact.

But judge Pang said Poon was not just telling a story - he was also spreading fear and hatred toward police.

In another case, a former administrative assistant at the Institute of Vocational Education was acquitted of charges linked to him accessing a police network with his home computer.

Leung Pak-wing, 26, had pleaded not guilty to obtaining access to a computer for dishonest gain, attempting to obtain such access and another charge of criminal damage.

Kwun Tong magistrate May Chung Ming-sun had heard that Leung logged into a police intranet on June 12, 2019, using leaked information.

But when he tried to look into the network's telephone directory, he was logged out automatically and could no longer gain access.

Leung had claimed he had logged into the intranet out of curiosity, and then he thought it was a fake website because it was very slow.

The magistrate noted that Leung tried to log into the intranet a few times only before giving up, and the prosecution could not prove what kind of information he had obtained.

Jail for protester rape claim inciter