HONG KONG – A Vietnamese labourer Friday began a three-month jail sentence for pricking two women on the bottom in Hong Kong, claiming he did so because he could not resist their “big buttocks”.

Pham Van Diep, 43, used a toothpick and a piece of wire to prick the buttocks of two women, aged 20 and 38, on two separate occasions in September and October.

The attacks triggered fears of random syringe attacks similar to the mass incidents reported in Xinjiang, western China, in September.

Pham appeared in court Thursday for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to two counts of assault.

The court was told he was arrested at his home shortly after the second incident Oct 5.

At the time, he told police he had pricked the women’s buttocks because he was drunk and could not resist them “as they were big”, said a report in the Hong Kong Standard newspaper.

But psychological reports presented to the court said Pham did not have a “big buttock” fetish and he had changed his story saying he had attacked the first victim because she was blocking his way.

In sentencing, magistrate Kwok Wai-kin said Pham could not use drunkenness as an excuse as he appeared to know what he was doing and had run away after the attack and hid the weapon.