Incest trial hears assault claims against police
On.cc · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago5 MIN
Summary
A 24-year-old defendant is standing trial in the High Court over seven charges alleging repeated sexual offences against his younger sister at a Sha Tau Kok flat between September 2013 and July 2016. He has denied four counts of incest and three counts of committing gross indecency with or towards a child under 16, with the complainant said to have been aged between seven and 10 at the time. On Monday, the defence challenged the circumstances in which his cautioned statements and video-recorded interview were obtained, alleging he was assaulted in a police vehicle and later coached on what to say. The detective who arrested him and conducted the cautioned interview denied those allegations in court
Key Points
- The charges allege four acts of sexual intercourse and three acts of gross indecency involving the defendant’s younger sister in a Hong Kong unit from 2 September 2013 to 17 July 2016
- According to police records, the defendant said after arrest and cautioning that he had done it, was young at the time, and now deeply regretted it
- Police records also state that in a video-recorded interview, the defendant admitted all seven offences now before the High Court
- Defence counsel alleged that during the trip to Sha Tau Kok Police Station, two officers punched the defendant in the waist and berated him as inhuman
- The arresting detective, identified as Wong Chun-ting (王俊亭), denied claims that officers pressured the defendant or instructed him to alter details to reduce sentence exposure
Why It Matters
The dispute over how the defendant’s statements were obtained goes to the reliability and weight of key prosecution evidence in a serious sexual offence trial. For Hong Kong readers, the hearing also underscores how courts scrutinise allegations of police misconduct and interview practices when confessions are said to be central to the case