A Hong Kong woman who chucked coins at three judges in the midst of a hearing out of apparent frustration has failed in her appeal to have her conviction for common assault overturned.
The coin-toss itself took place last year, while the court was hearing a case related to the 2012 Lamma ferry crash. In the midst of the hearing, the woman, Lai Yung, stood up in the public gallery and slung three coins in the direction of the three-judge panel, RTHK reports.
The coins fell short, however, and no one was hit.
After being escorted from the courtroom and barred from reentering, Lai stalked the halls of the High Court, finally entering another courtroom and pestering an official she found there about a previous case she had been involved in that she accused the court of mishandling, Apple Daily reported at the time.
She was taken away by police shortly afterwards, and had also been briefly arrested the week before for taking photos in a courtroom.
Lai was convicted of common assault and handed a 10-day suspended sentence in January. She appealed both, representing herself in court and arguing the conviction and sentence were unfair as she hadn’t intended to hurt anyone.
She also took issue with the testimony of a security guard, who had testified to being scared when when Lai threw the coins.
“Why would she become a security guard if she gets scared that easily?” Lai asked, in what may be the only reasonable element of the entire case.
Prosecutors, however, said Lai had gotten off light as it was, and that the presiding judge had taken into account her depression at the time.
The court apparently agreed, declining to overturn the conviction or the sentence.
