A man was arrested on Wednesday after he allegedly posted a story online boasting about how he had detained and sexually abused an underage girl, with accompanying photos.
Last Thursday, the author began posting on a popular online forum about how he had paid a teen to be his “part-time girlfriend”, but began punishing her after she refused to perform sexual acts and send him nude pictures. After claiming to have blackmailed the girl to go to his apartment, the author detailed acts of sexual abuse that he had purportedly carried out on her.
According to the SCMP, the author said he thought he should stop after the victim began “shivering a lot” and “started to ramble”. Accompanying photos showed an unidentified handcuffed girl sitting on a bed and covering her face.
In later posts, the author allegedly stated that the story was made up, but netizens had already become alarmed.
E-zone reports that one netizen wrote, “You think he’s innocent? Have you seen the posts? The details and the pictures are horrifying. He even said how he had tortured the girl until she’s unconscious. Even if it’s not real, he has obviously gone way too far if people have been reporting him to the police.” Many other commenters echoed the sentiment, and expressed concern about the overly detailed “story”.
After receiving multiple reports of the alleged abduction, police located the author, a 22-year-old assistant librarian surnamed Lai, in his home in Cheung Sha Wan on Wednesday evening. Although he insisted that the story was fictitious, he was arrested on suspicion of accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent, and wasteful employment of the police.
A source told the SCMP that the girl in the pictures was believed to be Lai’s real girlfriend. Lai said he had made up a story around the pictures, which were taken with his girlfriend’s consent, as part of a “game”. (Lai, please don’t ever invite us to your board game nights.)
According to Apple Daily, prior to his arrest, Lai posted on the forum to say how “strange” it was that people would have contacted the authorities and said “let’s see if the police can find the victim”.
Barrister Albert Luk told Apple Daily that he believed charging Lai with “wasteful employment of the police” was appropriate, as it is illegal to “access a computer with a dishonest intent to deceive” under the Crimes Ordinance. However, solicitor Vitus Leung said he believed the incident was “hardly a case”, comparing it to fictional movies being screened at the cinema.
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