Yuen Long accused says his weapon was just for show

A man charged with rioting over the Yuen Long mob attack in 2019 told the District Court on Wednesday that he never hit anyone on the night in question.

Ng Wai-nam denied accusations from the prosecution that he had used a stick to strike a man wearing an orange helmet, causing him to fall down, before hitting him again a second time.

The 57-year-old said he had only waved the stick around and hit water barriers with it, to try to disperse a crowd he thought was planning to “demolish an ancestral hall”. He denied that he was threatening the crowd with violence.

Ng added that the stick wasn’t his in the first place, and he only snatched it from a black-shirted man because he felt threatened by him.

But prosecutors said video footage showed the black-shirted man wasn’t carrying a stick at all, and Ng was actually given the stick by another man in a checked shirt.

Ng is among six men who deny a charge of rioting, while two others have pleaded guilty.

The attack on July 21, 2019, left dozens of people in hospital. Police did not turn up during the rampage, even though the force admitted it was inundated with calls for help.