Catholic principal guilty of slander
Judge rules school head broke a commandment and must face his God for defaming a teacher. He was ordered to pay damages and apologise
A judge has ruled that the head of a top Catholic school broke one of the Ten Commandments after finding he slandered a teacher.
District Judge Wong Hing-chun wrote in a 24-page judgment that George Tam Siu-ping, principal of the Hong Kong Wah Yan College had breached a commandment and must "face his God and conscience for speaking evil falsely of his neighbour".
The case was brought by Shiu Hon-po, a former English teacher at the college, who claimed Tam had defamed him at a school management meeting in 2004.
Wong found Shiu had successfully discharged the burden of proof that Tam had acted with malice when he endorsed a complaint filed by a parent which the court heard had already been investigated and found groundless.
Wong ordered Tam, the first non-priest principal of the school, to issue an apology and pay compensation. Tam had denied the allegation and gave a series of excuses for the court.
He blamed poor English for mistakenly stating the complaint was "valid" when he only intended to say it was "real". The school, which was founded 93 years ago, teaches in English.
