Court Photo Accused Bailed After Sacking Lawyer

A mainland woman suspected of taking photographs during a High Court hearing was released on bail of HK$50,000 on Friday and ordered not to leave Hong Kong, as a judge continued to struggle to make sense of her explanations.

In her fourth appearance before Justice Andrew Chan over the alleged photo breach, Tang Lin-ling dismissed a lawyer she had roped into helping her after she bumped into him in a lift.

Prominent barrister Kevin Egan had told the judge in the morning that he was not actually representing Tang and had only offered her some advice "out of sympathy". He said they had met in a lift when she asked whether anyone present was a lawyer.

Egan told the judge that he had advised Tang to admit taking photographs – during a hearing on Wednesday over the clearance of the Mong Kok protest site in 2014 – out of ignorance of the law.

He said he had also explained to her the differences between the judicial systems on the mainland and in Hong Kong.

But at that point, Tang interrupted the barrister, accusing him of making misleading statements to the media, and then saying she even doubted he is a proper lawyer.

With the permission of the judge, Egan then left the courtroom.

Tang had earlier said she was staying at the Shangri-La hotel. But when the judge asked her for her address, she said she wasn't prepared to give it in front of the media, who she said had been "really annoying" her.

The judge then told her to write it down for him instead.

Tang, who spoke in English, said she had studied law in Australia. Despite this, she said nobody had told her what she could or couldn't do in a courtroom. She would not say whether she saw the "no photography" signs, but instead kept insisting that it wasn't a big issue.

But the judge said in fact, such behaviour can have serious consequences and he adjourned the case until June 15 to give the police time to investigate.

Concerns have been raised in recent weeks about unlawful photography in the city's courts, after pictures of the jury in localist Edward Leung's riot trial were posted to the judiciary. A man had earlier been caught taking photos of the jurors, although no action was taken against him.