Former care home worker faces five rape charges
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
A former assistant warden at a residential home for people with intellectual disabilities in Hong Kong has gone on trial in the High Court over five alleged rapes of a female resident. Prosecutors said the alleged offences took place at a Tai Po home linked to the Hong Chi Association between July and August 2024, and that the complainant had the intellectual ability of a child aged nine years and 10 months.
Key Points
- Defendant Chung Pui-kei, a former assistant warden, faces five counts of raping a mentally incapacitated woman who lived at the Tai Po home.
- Prosecutor Human Lam Hiu-man told the High Court the five alleged incidents were reconstructed from two video-recorded police interviews and surveillance footage.
- The complainant, now aged 23, was said to have viewed the defendant as friendly because he chatted with her, played Mario Kart and gave her marshmallows.
- Three alleged rapes were said to have happened in a male staff room and two in the woman’s own room at the home.
- The court heard the woman recalled the door being locked before both were undressed, and said she felt pain and sometimes said no.
Why It Matters
The trial focuses attention on how residential care homes protect intellectually disabled residents from abuse by staff in positions of trust. It also shows how prosecutors are relying on medical assessments, recorded interviews and surveillance material in pursuing serious sexual offence cases involving vulnerable complainants.