Hong Kong marine official found to have ignored life jacket law in deadly 2012 Lamma ferry disaster walks free after jail sentence cut

A senior Hong Kong marine official who ordered staff to ignore a life jacket law before the deadly 2012 Lamma ferry disaster has failed to clear his name but won a shorter sentence, which resulted in his immediate release on Friday.

So Ping-chi, 61, was jailed for 16 months in June 2016 for misconduct in public office. A District Court judge at the time found the former assistant director of the Marine Department had seriously misconducted himself by wilfully instructing subordinates not to enforce the law and by failing to rescind that order.

His conviction was upheld on Friday, with Court of Appeal vice-president Andrew Macrae concluding that So’s conduct was “a clear case of non-feasance or breach of duty”. It represented a “serious departure” from the responsibilities of his office as a principal surveyor of ships, Macrae said.

“Members of the public, who would normally be unaware of the safety measures in place on vessels in which they are carried, and who would inevitably be ignorant as to whether they comply with the law, were entitled to trust that a regulation designed to protect them and their children at sea was being properly implemented and overseen by the officials concerned,” Macrae said.

“The appeal against the conviction must be dismissed,” he added, in passing judgment with justices Ian McWalters and Derek Pang Wai-cheong.