A 23-year-old man was on Thursday jailed for four months for tearing three national flags down and throwing them in a rubbish bin on July 1 last year.

Pang Tsz-kin, a part-time tutor, was earlier convicted by Kowloon City Court of desecrating three national flags in Wong Tai Sin.

Magistrate Andrew Mok said the defendant’s behaviour was malicious and contemptuous, and what he did could have led to conflict with people who held different views about the flags.

In addition, the magistrate noted that the flags did not belong to Pang.

The court ruled that the crime was serious, adding that there’s no reason for a discount in the sentence, since Pang was convicted after trial and his remorse was superficial.