A British national who was the subject of an Apple Daily investigation last month in which he was purported to have fleeced female victims with tales of woe about sick relatives appeared in court today on charges of theft and overstaying his visa.
Kieran Thomas Donnelly, 38, was arrested in Ngau Tau Kok on Friday, the local Chinese-language publication reported, and stands accused of stealing one woman’s laptop and cash from another.
Donnelly, who is unemployed and should have left Hong Kong by April 20, had his bail application rejected by magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen, who said the defendant had a history of absconding, according to HK01.
We assume he’s referring to a pair of theft cases filed against Donnelly in June for which he failed to appear, according to Apple Daily. The cases were respectively filed by a 42-year-old woman who reported a HK$7,000 (US$894) laptop and HK$1,500 (US$191) in cash had been stolen from her, and a 30-year-old woman who reported that Donnelly had stolen HK$6,000 (US$766) in cash.
In an extensive Apple Daily article published last month, alleged victims claimed that Donnelly had a history of pretending to have a sick relative in order to try and win sympathy from female victims, who would then loan him money he would never repay.
One of the interviewees who spoke with the paper said that Donnelly managed to convince one of his female victims to take him in, and he lived in her apartment rent-free for months.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqNN8sIwQYQ&frags=pl%2Cwn
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