It was a fair question.
In the past 10 years, Chung Syun Wong, 23, has been accused on seven separate occasions of indecently assaulting girls on public transport.
The first, in 2009, happened when he was just 13 years old. He was caught five more times between 2011 and 2013.
So when he showed up at Kowloon City Magistrates’ Court — accused of pinching a 15-year-old girl on the thigh on the MTR on Tuesday– the magistrate had very little in the way of sympathy to show, according to a report by Apple Daily.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ principal magistrate Bernadette Woo asked, “Are you ill son?”
According to Apple Daily, Chung, in response, insisted he would change, saying he wanted to get a diploma and work as a kitchen hand.
Woo wasn’t buying it.
“But you haven’t changed, people have called you a ‘dirty old man’, ‘wretched’, a ‘sex maniac’, ‘obscene’, and ‘despicable’.”
Chung — who in 2013 was sent to Christian Zheng Sheng College, a private college and rehabilitation and correction center for youths — tried again: “I’ve only been studying for two months, I want to continue my studies.”
Impressed, Woo was not.
“How am I supposed to believe you? Don’t assume that studying more is going to be helpful, there’s something called ‘the scum of the literati’, studying more has nothing to do with that,” replies Woo, citing a Chinese phrase similar to the saying ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’
According to Apple Daily, Chung pleaded guilty to indecent assault over the incident.
The court heard it took place on a train from Jordan heading towards Central on Tuesday, where Chung — who had a shoulder bag on his lap — pinched the girl on her thigh.
He got off the train at Tsim Sha Tsui, but then got back on again when he realised the girl was following him. After he got back on the train, the girl yelled calling on passengers to stop him.
He was apprehended by passengers, and police arrested him at Admiralty station.
Sentencing will be held at a later date.
