Pair Jailed For 26 Months For Damaging MTR Station

Two men have been sentenced to 26 months in prison each for vandalising Tseung Kwan O MTR Station in October last year.

Lo Chi-chung and Lam Chun had earlier pleaded guilty at the District Court to breaking into the station in the small hours of October 8, 2019, and shattering at least 14 glass platform doors.

In handing down sentence, judge Ernest Lin condemned the two defendants for not only damaging the station, but also for "destroying social harmony".

While the pair had argued that they simply wanted to express their discontent with the government, Lin said the only outcome of their action was destruction.

He added that the damage to the station would never have helped make the policies that they were unhappy with disappear overnight, and nor would it bring social equity.

The judge said violence is violence and there is simply no room to rationalise or glorify such behaviour.

He said the men's action was a substantial departure from the sort of democracy and justice that they claimed to be seeking, adding that a deterrent sentence was needed to send the right message to society.