3 Hongkongers convicted for assault after soaking policemen in Thai New Year festival

Three men have been remanded in custody to await sentencing for soaking police officers and journalists with water guns during a Thai New Year celebration in Hong Kong last year.

Taxi driver Tsang Wai-shing and clerk Ip Ka-kin, both 27, and steel fixer Yuen Tsz-kin, 32, were found to have targeted three auxiliary police constables and two journalists from the city’s biggest free-to-air broadcaster TVB by splashing water at them against their wishes on April 9, 2023.

Tsang, known by his alias “brave dog” on social media, and Yuen were also convicted of attacking a TVB cameraman on the same day.

Magistrate Philip Chan Chee-fai said the defendants had “definitely crossed the boundary for acceptable conduct”, even though a participant would normally expect to be drenched in a festival where the act of pouring water symbolises the removal of sins and bad luck in Thai tradition.

Chan said the trio must have intended to make unlawful physical contact with their targets by repeatedly shooting water jets at their faces from close range.