Warning over online rape video
Web users may face prosecution if they are found to have distributed or circulated a video of an alleged rape that has been posted online, a legal and computer expert said yesterday.
The warning came as three youths who were arrested in connection with the case were still being detained by police for questioning last night. No one has been charged.
Kevin Pun Kwok-hung, associate professor of computer science and law at the University of Hong Kong, said it would be an offence to distribute or circulate an obscene video regardless of the means used.
'It will make no difference if one shares the clip on peer-to-peer Foxy network or through mobile phones,' he said. 'If it is found to involve a rape ... the court may also be prompted to lay a heavier penalty.'
The three males, aged 16, 17 and 19, were apprehended in Sha Tin and Tai Po on Wednesday after the video was posted online and a report was made to police on Tuesday.
'Preliminary investigation showed that the sex attack happened in April,' a police source said. The attackers in the video were wearing uniforms purportedly from a fast-food restaurant chain.
Officers from the technology crime division of the Commercial Crime Bureau are investigating.
Under the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance, distributors of an obscene article could be liable to a fine of HK$1 million and three years' imprisonment. Dr Pun added that if the victim was aged below 16, anyone who possessed the material would also be liable to the child pornography law.
He conceded, however, that dissemination of the video could not be stopped if it was on the internet.
Linda Wong Sau-yung, executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, said women who had been the victims of sexual violence were reluctant to report it to the police. 'When the offence goes public, they will be even more unwilling to speak out.'
A spokesman from the fast-food restaurant chain, to which the uniforms purportedly belonged, said last night it was very concerned and had set up a special group to investigate.
