3rd November 2026 – (Hong Kong) Yuen Long District Councillor Sze Chun-hing was today sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment at the District Court for unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, and under the District Councils Ordinance he stands to lose his seat at once for a jail term exceeding three months.
Mr Sze was convicted in case. District Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi ordered him into custody immediately. The government noted that either side may still appeal and said it would watch the judicial process closely. His district councillor remuneration and allowances, officials added, have already been stopped from 14th September, the day he was found guilty.
Under Cap. 547, a councillor who is sentenced to more than three months’ imprisonment that cannot be replaced by a fine — whether or not the term is suspended — is disqualified from holding office. The administration stressed that it attaches great importance to district councillors’ character and integrity. Home and Youth Affairs Bureau secretary Miss Alice Mak Mei-kuen has, under the ordinance and the councillor performance monitoring system, appointed a monitoring committee to examine what further action should follow; the panel will report to her for a decision and will keep pace with developments in the case.
After the September conviction Ms Mak said a five-member monitoring committee had been formed to investigate rigorously and impartially. The system, she said, allows inquiry and sanctions where a councillor’s conduct falls short, so that every member can serve residents faithfully. That administrative track continues alongside today’s sentence.
The court heard that in 2011 Mr Sze, then about 24, dated a girl who was 13 and had intercourse with her. The matter came to light in 2024. He was charged with unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16; a separate indecent assault count was dismissed after trial. On sentence Judge Chan said he would not treat Mr Sze as a romance fraudster, but rejected mitigation that marriage and a loving wife made reoffending unlikely. The nearer the victim was to the age of 13, the judge said, the graver the culpability; he found control over the girl, no condom used, and no basis for a reduction. Mr Sze now begins a two-and-a-half-year term while his council seat, pay and any residual appeal rights remain the live administrative and legal questions for the bureau and the courts in the weeks ahead.
