Hong Kong Case Law

香港特別行政區 訴 鄭小魚

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA309/2024

On rehearing and after viewing the CCTV (P2) and accepting police identification evidence, the court was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant intentionally pushed the victim's hand constituting common assault; the conviction is therefore upheld. Having considered the appellant's record and the similarity to a prior suspended sentence, activation of that suspended sentence and ordering consecutive terms was not erroneous or manifestly excessive, so the sentence is upheld.

Source excerpt

• Common assault
• Intent
• Self-defence
• Rehearing standard on appeal
• Activation of suspended sentence
• Use of cctv evidence

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香港特別行政區 訴 羅興娟

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA117/2025

The CCTV (P1), an uncontested objective exhibit, clearly recorded mutual spitting and reciprocal physical acts amounting to mutual assault; those facts satisfy the statutory offence of fighting in a public place. The judge correctly evaluated P1, considered medical records and submissions, properly refused irrelevant fresh evidence and requests for unrelated police‑station CCTV, and lawfully rejected self‑defence. On re‑hearing the court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that all elements were proved and accordingly dismissed the appeal and affirmed conviction and sentence.

Source excerpt

• Public place fighting (s25 public order ordinance)
• Cctv evidence
• Admission of fresh evidence
• Self‑defence
• Standard of proof on appeal

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香港特別行政區 訴 李秀含

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA150/2025

On a full re‑hearing of the evidence the court agreed with the trial judge's detailed credibility findings, concluded the prosecution proved the offence of fighting in a public place beyond reasonable doubt, rejected the appellant's self‑defence claim as unreasonable and retaliatory, and therefore dismissed the appeal and upheld the conviction.

Source excerpt

• Fighting in public
• Assault
• Self-defence
• Witness credibility
• Standard of proof
• Re‑hearing on appeal

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香港特別行政區 訴 成柏傑（又名李杰明）及另一人

Court

Court of Appeal

Case number

CACC72/2025

The trial judge's credibility findings and identification of D3 from CCTV/audio and PW1 evidence were reasonable and sufficient to establish joint enterprise liability beyond reasonable doubt; the attack was retaliatory not self‑defence; psychiatric evidence supported an indeterminate hospital order for D1; the sentences imposed, including D3's as instigator, were within appropriate range and not manifestly excessive.

Source excerpt

• Intention to cause grievous bodily harm
• Joint enterprise/party liability
• Identification from cctv and audio
• Self-defence
• Indeterminate hospital order
• Appeal against conviction

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香港特別行政區 訴 袁尚智

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA388/2024

The court could not safely rely on the appellant's alleged on-scene admission that he carried the knife for self-defence; once that confession was treated as doubtful, the remaining circumstantial evidence did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant possessed the fruit knife with intent to use it as an offensive weapon, therefore the conviction was unsafe and was quashed.

Source excerpt

• Possession of offensive weapon
• Confession admissibility and voluntariness
• Self-defence
• Standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt
• Appellate re-hearing (重審)

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香港特別行政區 訴 金英豪

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA38/2025

On full re-hearing the court found material and unresolved contradictions between witness accounts as to how the injury occurred and who caused it, and that DW1's contemporaneous account that PW1 told him the injury was self-inflicted raised reasonable doubt; therefore the evidence did not prove the appellant guilty of grievous bodily harm under Cap.212 s19 beyond reasonable doubt and the conviction was unsafe and had to be quashed.

Source excerpt

• Assault causing grievous bodily harm (cap.212 s19)
• Assault causing bodily harm (cap.212 s39)
• Self-defence
• Witness credibility assessment
• Re-hearing standard

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香港特別行政區 訴 俞家歡

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA413/2024

The court found on re-hearing that the appellant's evidence was internally inconsistent and implausible, that the force used was disproportionate to a single slap by an elderly victim, and that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the assault was not in self-defence; appeal dismissed and conviction and sentence upheld.

Source excerpt

• Assault
• Self-defence
• Credibility assessment
• Proportionality of force
• Re-hearing standard

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香港特別行政區 訴 陳麗娜

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA11/2025

The trial judge correctly assessed credibility, properly weighed the evidence including the appellant's caution statement and the video evidence, rejected the defence account as inherently implausible, found the prosecution witnesses credible and consistent on the essential facts (pushes then a slap), concluded there was deliberate unlawful application of force not justified by self‑defence, and that the prosecution proved the offence beyond reasonable doubt; therefore the conviction stands and the appeal is dismissed.

Source excerpt

• Assault
• Conviction appeal
• Credibility assessment
• Self-defence
• Police caution statements

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香港特別行政區 訴 曾文達

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA120/2024

On a full re‑hearing the appellate court concluded the prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant possessed the two plastic strips (P2) as offensive weapons with intent to use them for causing injury. Material deficiencies in the prosecution's case (absence of photographic evidence of the items in situ and of the boot, the innocuous physical nature of P2, and credible possibilities raised by defence evidence that P2 had a legitimate domestic purpose) together with unresolved doubts about the weight to attach to the oral confession meant the conviction could not stan…

Source excerpt

• Offensive weapon
• Possession
• Self-defence
• Admissibility of confession
• Appellate re-hearing standard
• Burden of proof

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HKSAR v. OTREMBA, ANDREW JOHN

Court

Court of First Instance

Case number

HCMA473/2024

The High Court dismissed a magistracy appeal against conviction and sentence for common assault on a taxi driver, upholding 10 days’ imprisonment and HK$4,000 compensation.

• Common assault
• Self-defence
• Witness credibility
• Uncharged acts/context evidence
• Deterrence
• Magistracy appeal rehearing standard

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