Mainland police have arrested a trainee pilot for Hainan Airlines following accusations he attempted to rape a Hong Kong film director after climbing into her suite via a 18-story balcony at a hotel on Hainan Island in southern China.
The 27-year-old suspect, surnamed Bai, was detained by police in Haikou province today, hours after film director Sharon Lam Suk-ching released a statement detailing his alleged conduct, complaining about the initial lax response by local police, and revealing attempts by a Hainan Airlines supervisor to dissuade her from pursuing the case.
According to Lam, she woke up at about 6am on Monday last week to find the trainee pilot in her hotel room wearing nothing but a pair of black underwear. He had accessed her room on the 18th floor by climbing from the balcony of his suite, which a neighbouring room on the same floor.
“I felt like someone was laying on me and touched my chest so I woke up and beat him,” Lam recalled in the statement.
After she fended off the intruder — who blamed his behavior on being drunk — Lam said she summoned a hotel staff member, who called police.
Lam complained officers to whom she reported the case neither jotted down any notes or took a recording. She said she was told by police to settle the matter privately with Bai as she wasn’t familiar with mainland law.
After discussing the case with friends, Lam returned to the Haikou Public Security Bureau to follow up. There, she said, Bai’s supervisor attempted to dissuade her from taking her complaint further because “training a pilot costs a huge amount of money.”
She says she was also warned by a police officer that, should she take legal action, she could face accusations of assault because she had hit Lam after discovering him in her hotel room.
Lam says she sought further advice from mainland lawyers in Hong Kong, who were critical of the authority’s response to her case, particularly as to why Bai’s actions had been classified as indecent assault instead of attempted rape.
In a statement, the Haikou Public Security Bureau said it had taken the 27-year-old into custody and was continuing to investigate the case.
In a separate statement, Hainan Airlines, , China’s largest privately owned carrier, said it had suspended Bai from duty. It added the company would not tolerate any violation of the law.
According to the SCMP, Lam was on Hainan Island working on a mainland television crime drama, Route, which has yet to be broadcast.
According to the Internet Movie Database website, she has worked as an assistant director on films featuring action stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li, including The Forbidden Kingdom, Rumble in the Bronx and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.
