A flying instructor has been jailed for nine months for touching a 15-year-old girl’s breasts during a private flying lesson.
‘Simon’ Wong Po-kei, 59, was a flying tutor and founder of the Hong Kong International Aviation Association, a now defunct flying school which had a student pilot training programme for teens aged 14 and over. According to the website, students do actually get to fly smaller aircraft as part of the programme.
Yesterday afternoon, during an appearance at Eastern Magistrates’ Court, Wong was found guilty of one count of indecent assault, on.cc reports.
The case in question happened on April 20, 2017, when Wong, during a lesson with the girl in a flight simulator at Chai Wan Youth Square, said that she had performed poorly.
As “punishment”, he forced her to sit on his lap, kissed her neck, put his hands underneath her shirt, touched her breast and pressed her nipple.
In a mitigating statement, a lawyer representing Wong said that on top of being a flying instructor for teens, he also taught wakeboarding and waterskiing since 2000 to young people, and has not received any similar complaints during that period.
The lawyer said that the incident in April was an isolated incident, and that his chances of committing another crime was very low.
According to HK01, the lawyer also pointed out that the flying school at the center of the case had been forced to shut as a result of the incident, that the case had destroyed the defendant’s reputation, which, he suggested, was punishment enough.
During the sentencing, the magistrate pointed out that the defendant was supposed to teach students, but that the single act he committed was a violation of his integrity as a tutor.
The magistrate sentenced Wong to nine months in jail effective immediately, and rejected his application for bail after he stated that he intended to appeal.
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