Three Hong Kong men convicted of assault after drenching police officers during Thai New Year celebrations

Three men have been remanded in custody to await sentencing for drenching police and journalists with water guns during a Thai New Year celebration in Hong Kong last year.

Taxi driver Tsang Wai-shing and clerk Ip Ka-kin, both 27, as well as steel repairman Yuen Tsz-kin, 32, three auxiliary police officers and two journalists from the city’s largest free-to-air broadcaster, TVB, were found to have been targeted splashed water against their will on April 9, 2023.

Tsang, known on social media by his pseudonym “Brave Dog,” and Yuen were also convicted of assaulting a TVB cameraman on the same day.

Judge Philip Chan Chee-fai said the defendants had “definitely crossed the line of acceptable behavior” even though a participant would normally expect to be drenched at a festival where pouring water on people is in Thai tradition the removal of sins and symbolizes misfortune.

Chan said the trio must have intended to make unlawful physical contact with their targets by repeatedly shooting jets of water into their faces at close range.