Hong Kong court acquits gov’t statistician who followed, photographed girl during school open day

A Hong Kong magistrate has acquitted a government statistician of a loitering offence following and photographing a schoolgirl during a school open day in July 2022. The Eastern Magistrates' Courts cleared Patrick Lam, a statistician with the Census and Statistics Department, of the charge of "loitering causing concern." The accusation stemmed from his actions over the past two years, which caused the Secondary 4 student, identified in court as "X," to feel unsafe.

Magistrate Kestrel Lam noted that X's concerns were not due to events during the open day but rather stemmed from X's experiences of being stalked by the defendant over the past two years. Police reported that Lam had begun following X as early as October 2022, waiting for her at Olympic MTR station and initiating conversations on at least one occasion. X testified via video link that she had seen the defendant at Central MTR station, apparently waiting for her.

During his arrest, Lam admitted to police that he followed the girl because she reminded him of an old friend, so he wanted to get to know her. The magistrate emphasized that the loitering offence targets "objectively threatening behaviour," ruling out the defendant's past conduct in this case. The court determined that a normal student without X's experience would not have felt threatened by Lam during the open day, leading to his acquittal.

However, the court noted that Lam's behaviour during the open day was "undeniably highly suspicious," and the girl may seek assistance through other legal means. In 2000, the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong recommended the introduction of an anti-stalking law, a proposal the government launched public consultation over in 2011 but dropped in 2014 due to lack of consensus.