Woman Loses Appeal Over Courtroom Coin Throwing

A woman who threw coins at judges in a courtroom last year has lost an appeal against her conviction for common assault and the 10-day suspended jail term that came with it.

Lai Yung threw three coins towards the three judges from the public gallery during a High Court hearing last June over the 2012 Lamma ferry disaster. The coins missed their targets.

She lodged an appeal against her conviction and sentence, arguing that the punishment was too heavy and she shouldn't have been found guilty in the first place because she was not trying to hurt anyone.

Representing herself, Lai said she had been writing to the court for a long time over another case she was involved in and felt aggrieved as she didn't get any response.

Lai also questioned the trustworthiness of a security guard at the High Court who testified at her trial, saying the guard had given a statement saying that she was scared when the coins were thrown.

"Why would she become a security guard if she gets scared that easily?" Lai asked.

But prosecutors argued against changing the sentence, arguing that in fact, the trial magistrate had been lenient and had taken into account that Lai had depression at the time.

The High Court dismissed the appeal, saying there were insufficient grounds to quash either the conviction or the sentence.