Calls for Hong Kong anti-stalking law after man acquitted of following teen girl
Lawmakers and a government adviser have called for anti-stalking legislation to close a loophole that makes prosecuting repeated harassment difficult in Hong Kong, following the acquittal of a man who followed a teenage girl to her secondary school classroom. Some experts said the government should revisit a proposal for such legislation raised 26 years ago, after the magistrate who acquitted the…
Lawmakers and a government adviser in Hong Kong are calling for anti-stalking legislation following the acquittal of a man who followed a teenage girl to her school classroom for three years. The 57-year-old statistician was found not guilty of loitering outside her classroom in July last year, despite allegedly following her to school for two to three years.
Eastern Court Magistrate Kestrel Lam Tsz-hong noted that existing laws, including those for doxxing, were insufficient to punish cyberstalking. The Law Reform Commission proposed the legislation in 2000, but it was put on hold in 2014 due to a lack of favourable conditions. Barrister Ronny Tong Ka-wah suggested launching a public consultation on the legislation, stating that the government should reconsider the proposal given the current circumstances.
Lawmaker Alex Fan Hoi-kit emphasized the need to review the commission's suggestion, while legal sector lawmaker Nick Chan Hiu-fung raised doubts about the sufficiency of privacy laws to address cyberstalking. However, veteran criminal lawyer Stephen Hung Wan-shun cautioned that resurrecting the proposal would be highly unlikely due to the long period of dormancy.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
