The District Court on Wednesday found five speech therapists guilty of conspiring to publish seditious children's books.

The court ruled that the three picture books concerned – said to have described Hong Kong as the sheep village and the mainland as where the wolves live – had spread separatism and incited hatred against the authorities.

The defendants were charged under section 10 of the Crimes Ordinance. Lai Man-ling, Melody Yeung, Sidney Ng, Samuel Chan and Fong Tsz-ho were executive committee members of the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists.

Judge Kwok Wai-kin ruled that the books were not just fables that taught children about universal virtues but were referring to events happening in Hong Kong, including the controversy over the now-shelved extradition bill.

“By identifying the PRC Government as the wolves, and the Chief Executive of HKSAR as the wolves masqueraded as a sheep at the direction of the Wolf-chairman, along the story line told in Book 1, the children will be led into belief that the PRC Government is coming to Hong Kong with the wicked intention of taking away their home and ruining their happy life with no right to do so at all,” Kwok said in his judgement.

“What has happened here is that the publishers of the books clearly refuse to recognize that PRC has resumed exercising sovereignty over HKSAR, nor do they recognize the new constitutional order in the Region, and lead the children to think that what the authorities both in PRC and HKSAR have done is wrong and illegitimate,” he added.

Mitigation and sentencing have been adjourned to September 10.