Cyberbullying
Criminal Damage
Under section 60 of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200), a person who without lawful excuse intentionally destroys or damages any property belonging to another person or is reckless as to whether any such property is destroyed or damaged is guilty of an offence.
In HKSAR v Ko Kam fai, which involved charges of criminal intimidation, as well as charges of criminal damage, the defendant hacked into the e-mail accounts of his two victims and changed some data in their computers. As a result of the large number of emails he sent them, their e-mail accounts were overloaded to the extent that they became inoperative. His actions amounted to criminal damage, as the computers ceased to operate as a result of his activities. The principles in this case would apply to cyberbullies who bombard their victim with e-mails, or hack into their computers causing them to malfunction or become inoperative, even if this is of short-term duration.