An unemployed man who allegedly claimed to be a gangster in an effort to coerce a woman into sex has pleaded not guilty to raping the woman on New Year’s Day after she repeatedly refused his advances.
Tsang Yau-tik, 29, appeared at the High Court yesterday morning charged with rape, criminal intimidation, and claiming to be a member of a triad society.
In their opening statement, the prosecution said that while New Year’s Day is a time for celebration, for their client — a 25-year-old receptionist referred to in court as X — the day is instead little more than a prompt for painful memories, Apple Daily reports.
According to the newspaper, Tsang first met X in 2013 through a friend of her then-boyfriend called “Kwong Siu.”
After the first introduction, Tsang began messaging and calling X on a daily basis asking her out, with X repeatedly turning him down. Tsang and X didn’t see each other again until 2017, when X was with a female friend and Tsang asked her “why don’t you want to see me,” to which X replied, “I’m not interested in you.”
On the morning of New Year’s Day 2018, Tsang appeared to snap, sending X a message that read: “If you [ditch] me this time everyone in your family will die,” adding, “No woman would treat me like this!”
Fearing for her family’s safety, X — who was 23 at the time — agreed to meet Tsang at an hourly hotel in Tsuen Wan. The court heard that X, her boyfriend. and his friends would sometimes book a hotel room inside similar hotels for poker games, so it didn’t strike her as odd to meet Tsang there, Ming Pao reports.
When the pair were in the room, Tsang asked X to be his girlfriend, to which she responded, “I wouldn’t pick you.”
It was at that point Tsang claimed that he was a member of a triad in Tsuen Wan, took off her leggings and panties, and tried to force himself on her, but left the room after she protested. Then “Kwong Siu,” the mutual “friend” who had introduced Tsang to X, entered the room and began watching porn and masturbating, while telling X: “Just have sex with him; the important thing is to make him happy. Once you’re done we’ll give you HK$500.”
Ming Pao reports that X refused, but couldn’t leave as Kwong Siu, still masturbating, was blocking the door.
Tsang eventually returned to the room, Kwong Siu left, and Tsang forced himself on X despite her repeated protests. He wasn’t wearing a condom at the time.
After Tsang left, X booked a room at another hotel and called a friend asking her to bring her a change of underwear. The next day, X revealed to her friend what had happened and went to get a morning-after pill from the Family Planning Clinic.
But 16 days later, X discovered she was pregnant. She had an abortion on February 8, 2018, and called the police to report the incident. A DNA test on the fetus found that Tsang was the father.
The trial will resume at a later date.
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