Hong Kong law clerk acquitted of wounding man who bit district councillor’s ear in 2019

Judge finds Eric Ko used proportionate force when subduing drunken man who bit politician’s ear during 2019 social unrest

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Former businessman Joe Chen bit the ear of then district councillor Andrew Chiu in a drunken rampage in 2019. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:16pm, 10 Jul 2024Updated: 5:31pm, 10 Jul 2024

A law clerk has been acquitted of wounding a man who bit a district councillor’s ear in a drunken assault during Hong Kong’s social unrest in 2019, with the judge saying the defendant used proportionate force to stop the attack.

Deputy District Judge Ko Wai-hung cleared Eric Ko Fung on Wednesday, saying he believed the 63-year-old was trying to stop former businessman Joe Chen’s rampage outside Cityplaza shopping centre in Quarry Bay on November 3, 2019.

Chen bit off part of the left ear of Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, who was then an Eastern district councillor, and attacked three other people before he was caught and beaten up by a crowd of people. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail.

The judge also found the clerk not guilty of a separate charge of rioting.

“Considering the situation, especially the violence Chen had inflicted on others, I am of the view that the violence Ko had used on Chen was not unreasonable and disproportionate,” the judge wrote in his verdict.

Eric Ko, a resident in the Taikoo Shing neighbourhood and a law clerk for three decades, said he was only passing by Cityplaza on his way home.