Hong Kong businessman jailed for 8 years for drugging and raping his domestic helper, 23, before trying to buy her off with HK$2,000
- Lee Pui-hung, 60, tells High Court he immensely regrets the ‘impulsive’ acts he committed in the family home two years ago
- He made helper eat a sedative-spiked bowl of turtle shell herbal jelly and then subjected her to 30-minute ordeal
A middle-aged Hong Kong businessman has been jailed for eight years after drugging, raping and impregnating his 23-year-old domestic helper and then attempting to buy her off with HK$2,000 (US$256).
Lee Pui-hung, 60, who previously owned an air-conditioning company, told the High Court he immensely regretted the “impulsive” acts he committed two years ago that had cost him his family and career.
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But deputy judge Eric Kwok Tung-ming said on Friday that the crime was carefully planned and questioned how Lee’s financial plight led him to attack the Indonesian worker.
“The defendant’s remorse is all talk and no action,” Kwok said as he passed sentence. “The evidence in this case is conclusive. Pleading guilty was the only wise thing to do.”
The court heard the helper began working for the Lee family in July 2021 and had lived peacefully with the couple in a tenement flat in Cheung Sha Wan after the defendant’s two daughters moved out.
On November 21 that year, the then 23-year-old helper fell unconscious in the flat’s kitchen after Lee made her eat a bowl of turtle shell herbal jelly that he had spiked with sedatives.
Lee raped the helper in her room while she was in a daze.
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The employer apologised afterwards and gave his victim four HK$500 bills hoping she would say nothing about her 30-minute ordeal. The helper recalled twice throwing away the money only for Lee to thrust it back into her pocket.
The exhausted helper fell asleep and filed a police report the next day.
“I did have sex with her, but I gave her HK$2,000 afterwards,” Lee told officers shortly after his arrest.
He insisted in a subsequent interview the sexual act was consensual, adding that he had thrown away the shirt he wore at the time because he feared the helper would frame him.
The woman was confirmed pregnant two weeks later and had an abortion in January last year. A DNA examination of the embryo concluded it was Lee’s child.
The accused on Friday pleaded guilty to rape, administering drugs to obtain or facilitate an unlawful sexual act and perverting the course of justice.
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Defence lawyers said Lee had closed his business and sold the Cheung Sha Wan flat since his prosecution. He had also transferred all proceeds of the flat sale to his ex-wife as part of their divorce settlement, the court heard.
Kwok described the case as “very serious”, emphasising the psychological trauma suffered by the helper, who still has severe anxiety.
He jailed Lee for between eight months and six years for each offence before sentencing him to a total of eight years.
