Student claims he was coerced into signing a statement he did not agree with regarding the incident at Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School
More questions surrounding a school bullying case surfaced yesterday, after the Hong Kong police were accused of pressuring a teenager to sign a statement he did not agree with.
The police have rejected allegations made by Legislative Councillor Au Nok-hin, who spoke on behalf of 18-year-old Yip Kit-hung, regarding the statement Yip gave on January 28 about the bullying case at Yan Chai Hospital Tung Chi Ying Memorial Secondary School that involved one victim and eight perpetrators.
Yip, who was a student at the school, claimed he had been coerced by the police to sign a statement that contradicted his initial account of the case.
His statement said, “My intention is to raise the awareness of the police and the school to prevent similar cases from happening” and “I agree with the way the police handled the case”, which Yip thought was illogical.
“If Yip didn’t have any opinion on the case, he wouldn’t have reported it, so the statement doesn’t make any sense,” said Joshua Wong Chi-fung, secretary general of the pro-democracy group Demosisto, who was helping Yip with his complaint.
Yip added the police did not allow his family to accompany him to the station to make the statement. He also said he did not get a copy of the statement until his lawyer asked for it on February 25.
In response to Yip’s allegations, the police did not say under what circumstances he signed his statement. They said the statement had been read and acknowledged by Yip, before he signed it.
The police also claimed Yip had never asked to be accompanied by his family.
A copy of the statement was signed and received by Yip on the day he made it, and another copy was given to him upon the request of his lawyer, police added.
Young Post was unable to reach Yip, who is currently studying in Australia. It is also unclear whether the victim of the bullying case wanted to press charges.
Edited by M. J. Premaratne
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