The defendant, identified as H.Y.L. in the Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Court, had earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault.

When passing down the order, magistrate Raymond Wong Kwok-fai pointed to the serious nature of this case. Yet, he accepted H.Y.L.’s positive community service report submitted by the defense. The probation officer said H.Y.L. deserved a rehabilitation opportunity.

Wong added that H.Y.L. was only 15 when he carried out the first two sexual offenses, saying that H.Y.L.’s early guilty plea to the charges showed his remorse.

Since H.Y.L. had been detained in custody for about a month already, Wong handed H.Y.L. a 240-hour community service order as he believed it was more appropriate than imprisonment.

The court heard that one day in 2014, H.Y.L. and the cousin “X” – aged ten at the time – were at their grandparents’ home in Tuen Mun. H.Y.L. offered X his assistance playing a smartphone game in exchange for touching X’s breasts.

One day in the summer of the same year, H.Y.L. licked and touched X’s genitals in the Tuen Mun home again. On another day between 2016 and 2017, H.Y.L. climbed to the upper floor of a bunk bed where X was sleeping and touched her genitals.

The last sexual assault occurred one day between 2018 and 2019 when H.Y.L. and X were on a family trip to Macau. H.Y.L. touched X’s breasts and genitals in bed in a hotel room and rubbed his own genitals against X’s bottom until her parents returned.

X brought up the sexual assaults to her classmates in April 2022, and H.Y.L. was arrested the next month.

Co-defendant W.M.P., the 22-year-old older brother of X, also pleaded guilty to indecent assault and three counts of indecent conduct towards a child under 16. He was earlier handed a 220-hour community service order.