A 25-year-old convenience store worker with a record of child molestation was arrested yesterday for suspected indecent assault, after he reportedly posed as a tobacco control inspector and sexually abused smoking schoolboys.
Apple Daily reports that the man, surnamed Ng, has been jailed twice in the last four years for child molestation and posing as a public officer. Most recently, Ng would allegedly target boys in school uniforms who were smoking in Tin Shui Wai Park, and approach them under the pretence of being a member of the Tobacco Control Office (TCO).
Ng would reportedly threaten to notify his victims’ parents and school, then take them to a quiet place and indecently assault them. According to Apple Daily, many of Ng’s victims were too humiliated to tell their friends and family what had happened.
At approximately 11am yesterday morning, a secondary school in Tin Shui Wai received a phone call from a man who claimed to be TCO personnel, reporting that one of their male students was seen smoking in a non-smoking area. The man then requested the student’s telephone number and home address, which the school refused to provide.
At around 12pm, Ng reportedly visited the school and repeated his request for the student’s personal details, but was turned away for failing to produce relevant documents and identification.
Following this, the school reported the incident to the police, who sent officers to the school.
Ng returned to the school at 5pm, apparently demanded yet again to have the student’s personal details. He was found in possession of false identification, and arrested for impersonating a public officer.
The 25-year-old has reportedly been imprisoned twice for child molestation in the last four years.
In 2011, the then-21-year-old Ng posed as TCO staff in order to molest a 13-year-old boy on three separate occasions. The boy’s older brother reported Ng to the police, who charged him with one count of posing as a public officer, and three counts of indecent assault. Ng was jailed for eight months and released in June 2012.
Just over a year later, in Aug. 2013, Ng followed a 13-year-old boy – whom he had seen fare-dodging on the Light Rail – to a nearby shopping centre. Ng then harassed the boy under the guise of an off-duty Light Rail Transit (LRT) worker, and touched his genitals in a bathroom at the shopping centre.
The man then obtained his victim’s phone number, and called him 35 times. During their phone calls, Ng reportedly spoke of hugging, kissing, and performing oral sex on the boy. The 13-year-old then told his parents about the harassment, and Ng was jailed for two years and two months for indecent assault, as well as inciting, and committing gross indecency towards a child.
A spokesperson for the Tobacco Control Office said that, under normal circumstances, TCO staff will wear a clearly marked vest with the department’s name on, and carry a work permit. In the case of students committing illegal smoking offences, schools will co-operate with the TCO.
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