‘Insufficient evidence’ to charge basketball coach over viral clip showing alleged abuse of students, police say

Skip to content There is insufficient evidence to charge Hong Kong basketball coach Yung Kam-wah over alleged abuse of students, the police have said. Screenshot of an online video allegedly showing basketball coach Yung Kam-wah slapping a student on a school court. Photo: qchikk, via Threads. Yung, a prominent basketball coach, was arrested in early June after an online video showed a basketball coach forcing a student to slap himself several times in a school court. He was suspected of common assault. In a Chinese-language written response on Friday, the police told HKFP that they had conducted an in-depth investigation: “[P]olice found insufficient evidence to institute prosecution against anyone and have notified the relevant parties of the outcome.” The incident allegedly occurred at Hon Wah College, a secondary school in Siu Sai Wan. The school issued a statement on June 2, saying that the incident took place at the school during the 2023-24 academic year, Cable TV reported. The school added that it had contacted the student to provide support and had suspended Yung from coaching duties. Independent media outlet HK City Creation reported that, according to Hon Wah College students, Yung had been abusive towards pupils over a long period. Yung later posted on Facebook expressing remorse over the incident, but the message was subsequently deleted. Basketball coach Yung Kam-wah Photo: Yung Kam Wah, via Facebook. Two former basketball players at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) Basketball Club told UK-based media outlet Green Bean Media in mid-June that Yung also forced them to slap themselves and abused them verbally when he was the HKU Basketball Club coach. Yung did not respond the Green Bean Media’s enquiries. Yung, a former player for the Hong Kong men’s national basketball team, currently serves as the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Basketball Association and works as a sports commentator. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing. More by Irene Chan