{
  "id": 3377027,
  "title": "Hong Kong court acquits gov’t statistician who followed, photographed girl during school open day",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/hong-kong-court-acquits-govt-statistician-who-followed-photographed",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-25T23:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hong Kong Free Press",
    "slug": "hong-kong-free-press-hongkongfp",
    "url": "https://hongkongfp.com/2026/08/26/hong-kong-court-acquits-govt-statistician-who-followed-photographed-girl-during-school-open-day/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A Hong Kong magistrate has acquitted government statistician Patrick Lam of a loitering offence, despite labeling his actions of following and photographing a schoolgirl during an open day as \"highly suspicious.\" Eastern Magistrates' Courts. Lam, who works for the Census and Statistics Department, was found not guilty of the charge \"loitering causing concern\" by Magistrate Kestrel Lam on Tuesday. The incident allegedly occurred during an open day at the girl's school in Causeway Bay on July 5 last year. However, the magistrate clarified that the girl's concerns were not due to the open day itself but rather due to two years of stalking by the defendant. According to reports, the defendant started following the girl as early as October 2022, including waiting for her at the Olympic MTR station and having at least one conversation with her. The girl testified via video link that she had attempted to avoid the defendant on her way to school but still encountered him at Central MTR station. When arrested, Lam confessed to the police that he followed the girl because she reminded him of an old friend, prompting him to get to know her better. The magistrate emphasized that the girl's fear stemmed from her past encounters with the defendant, rather than his behavior during the open day. Lam noted that the court should not consider the defendant's past conduct when determining guilt in the current case. Under Hong Kong's anti-stalking law, the offense targets \"objectively threatening behavior,\" which the magistrate determined did not apply in this case. The court must decide whether a normal student without the girl's past experiences would have felt threatened during the open day, leading to her acquittal. The defendant's actions, including secretly photographing the girl during the event, were deemed \"undeniably highly suspicious\" by the magistrate. The Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong has recommended the introduction of an anti-stalking law, a proposal that was first brought forward in a 2000 report and followed by a public consultation in 2011, but ultimately the legislative bid was dropped in 2014 due to a lack of consensus.",
  "summary": "A Hong Kong magistrate has acquitted a government statistician of a loitering offence, despite describing his behaviour of following and photographing a schoolgirl during an open day last year as “highly suspicious.” Patrick Lam, a statistician with the Census and Statistics Department, was cleared of a charge of “loitering causing concern” at the Eastern Magistrates’ […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Hong Kong Free Press",
        "title": "Hong Kong court acquits gov’t statistician who followed, photographed girl during school open day",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/hong-kong-court-acquits-govt-statistician-who-followed-photographed-3379432",
        "published": "2026-08-25T23:30:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}