A 41-year-old teacher was sentenced to four months in jail at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday after being convicted on two counts of indecent assault filed by two pupils.
Magistrate Matthew Leung Man-liang reprimanded the man, a Chinese language and physical education teacher at a primary school in the New Territories’ Tuen Mun, for violating the trust between a teacher and his students, the Apple Daily reported.
The magistrate sentenced him to immediate imprisonment, but allowed him to apply for release on bail pending an appeal.
The court heard that a then 11-year-old girl identified as X and a 10-year-old girl identified as Y, both South Asian, had been indecently assaulted at the school by the defendant starting in 2015 and up to February last year.
X told the court the defendant used his elbow to touch her breast for a few seconds on three occasions and she believed he had intentionally touched her.
The magistrate said he believed that if the touching described by the defendant were accidents, it would not have lasted for three to four seconds, adding that he believed X was a truthful and reliable witness.
For Y, the magistrate pointed out that she could not clearly state the date of the incident and the date she filed her complaints to the school, but he believed Y was an honest but not reliable witness. The defendant was found not guilty on two charges of indecently assaulting Y.
Read: Teacher jailed 4 months over indecent assault on two pupils