- Undercover officer catches Jimmy Tang, 27, lurking behind woman with a camera protruding from hole in his computer bag in 2016
- But lawyer says Yang is a shamed and changed man thanks to his sister’s support – and that his wife has forgiven him
An MTR driver who attempted to take upskirt photos of a woman three years ago was on Wednesday given 160 hours of community service.
Jimmy Tang Yee-lam, 27, had pleaded guilty after an undercover police officer caught him in the act outside Kwai Fong MTR Station on April 13, 2016.
West Kowloon Court heard the officer had found Tang lurking suspiciously behind a woman in a skirt and after intercepting him found a camera protruding from a hole in his computer bag.
After his arrest, Tang admitted: "I was feeling lustful so I made this bag to take secret upskirt photos."
Police subsequently seized Tang's computer, where they found 16 videos of women taken from April 2 to April 10 in 2016. Tang had taken the photos in shopping centres, streets, MTR stations and train compartments.
Tang later resigned from the MTR Corporation.
He pleaded guilty in August to one count of attempting to commit an act outraging public decency, after 16 other similar charges were withdrawn. Tang had no prior convictions.
His defence lawyer revealed in mitigation that he felt shame and remorse for committing the crime, which prompted him to seek psychological counselling.
The lawyer argued that the defendant's lack of maternal love and emotional support during his childhood had contributed to the offence. But Yang was a changed man, the lawyer said, since his sister provided support and that his wife had forgiven him.
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On Wednesday, Principal Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen adopted the probation officer's recommendation in pre-sentencing reports to order 160 hours of unpaid community service.
Smartphone-related prosecutions were previously put on hold after the High Court last year found it problematic for prosecutors to rely on the commonly used offence of obtaining access to a computer when a defendant, such as Tang, had used his own device to commit the crime.
That ruling was unanimously upheld in April by five Court of Final Appeal judges.
At least eight smartphone-related cases were subsequently affected, with the contentious charge amended or withdrawn.
In July, a Hong Kong taxi driver accused of taking a photograph of a breastfeeding passenger and uploading her picture to Facebook went free after prosecutors had to drop the charge.
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