A Hong Kong court has handed down an 18-month prison sentence to a former school teacher who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old pupil on two separate occasions in 2020, with the judge emphasizing that the offence was sufficiently grave to preclude any sentencing reduction.
Cheng Hon-sze, now 32, faced sentencing at Tsuen Wan Court after being found guilty of two counts of indecent assault. The charges stemmed from incidents in May and October 2020, when Cheng groped the student and forced her to perform obscene acts. District Judge Gary Lam Kar-yan rejected defence arguments for a lighter sentence, stressing that the seriousness of the case left no room for mitigation based on it being a first offence.
The conviction was narrower than the full scope of allegations against Cheng. He was cleared of seven additional counts of indecent assault after the court determined that on those occasions, the girl had not explicitly rejected his advances or that the conduct in question lacked inherent indecency. However, the defendant had previously admitted to engaging in repeated intimate contact with the victim across multiple locations, including a music storage room at the school. The broader pattern of abuse allegedly extended from November 2019 through June 2024, a period during which the victim aged from 14 to 19.
Cheng taught the student across multiple school years—Forms One, Two, and Four through Six—and held responsibility for the school's marching band, in which the girl performed as a trumpeter. This institutional authority and repeated access proved central to the judge's assessment. The sentencing structure imposed one year for each of the two proven counts, with the judge ordering that these sentences run partially consecutively, resulting in the 18-month total. In reaching his decision, Judge Lam explicitly considered the 11-year age gap between perpetrator and victim, the degree of sexual indecency involved, and the documented harm inflicted on the student.
Psychological evaluation of the victim provided sobering insight into the trauma's reach. A trauma report presented to the court found that years after the incidents ceased, the girl remained emotionally enmeshed in a contradictory psychological state toward her abuser. She simultaneously viewed Cheng as someone who had helped and harmed her—a cognitive distortion that experts attributed to her formative developmental stage when the abuse occurred. The report documented how these experiences had warped her sense of personal boundaries and her ability to recognize harm when perpetrated by someone who also showed her kindness or support.
Most alarmingly, the clinical assessment revealed that the victim had internalized deeply concerning values. She had developed what the judge, quoting the psychological report, termed "twisted values"—a dangerous framework wherein she accepted harm from individuals if they demonstrated care toward her. Mental health professionals attributed this maladaptive thinking pattern to her incomplete understanding, at the time of the incidents, of why such conduct was fundamentally wrong. The prolonged exposure to this contradictory dynamic during her crucial adolescent years had left lasting scars on her worldview, leading her to regard the world as inherently unsafe and people as fundamentally untrustworthy, regardless of their outward presentation.
The judge acknowledged the lengthy road ahead for the victim's emotional recovery. In court remarks, Judge Lam expressed hope that she would emerge from this "dark period" as expeditiously as possible, while also encouraging her to pursue professional mental health support. These comments underscored the judiciary's recognition that criminal conviction, while providing legal accountability, cannot fully repair the psychological damage inflicted through years of abuse by a trusted authority figure.
The defendant's own psychological profile, as presented through clinical assessment, suggested both mitigating factors and ongoing risk. A clinical psychologist's report found that Cheng struggled with forming age-appropriate romantic relationships and had failed to comprehend the inherent power imbalance between a teacher and student or to grasp that such behaviour violates social norms. The assessment concluded he presented a low to moderate risk of reoffending, contingent on his participation in rehabilitation efforts. Judge Lam accordingly mandated that Cheng participate in follow-up work with social workers and receive professional psychological intervention through the Correctional Services Department during his imprisonment.
The defence strategy during sentencing had emphasized Cheng's limited relationship experience as a contributing factor, arguing that his feelings for the victim had clouded his judgment. His legal team conceded that the teacher-student boundary was inviolable, yet sought leniency based on his youth at the time of the offences and his subsequent expressions of remorse. Character references, including mitigation letters from his sister and a friend, characterized the incident as uncharacteristic of his personality. The defendant has since applied to pursue a master's degree at Polytechnic University following his dismissal from teaching.
The case illustrates persistent challenges within Hong Kong's child protection frameworks, particularly regarding institutional accountability for authority figures who abuse positions of trust. Teachers occupy a uniquely privileged position of access and influence over vulnerable adolescents, and breaches of that trust—especially those involving sexual exploitation—generate ripple effects across the victim's psychological development and social functioning. While the conviction provides judicial redress and removes Cheng from the classroom, the victim's documented struggles years later highlight the limitations of criminal justice alone in addressing trauma. The mandatory psychological support ordered as part of his sentence represents an acknowledgment that rehabilitation must address the underlying deficits that enabled the abuse, though this offers scant comfort to the survivor navigating long-term recovery.
