Kindergarten teacher Ng Shuk-wai and her partner, taxi driver Yu Hin-lam, both 27, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to perverting the course of justice by hiding the wanted protesters in hotel rooms and industrial flats and providing for their daily necessities between November 2020 and July 2022.

District Court Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said he believed the pair were victims of the “masterminds” who conned virtuous and innocent young people into joining the protests that had divided society.

Chan added that it could be reasonably inferred that the four had secured an escape route to Taiwan that would have enabled them to evade criminal sanction.

“The quartet’s attempt to abscond, if successful, would have been a serious blow and insult to Hong Kong’s judicial process. It would also have undermined public confidence in the rule of law,” he said.