Hong Kong district court hears allegation that father started indecently assaulting daughter when she was just six
Father denies indecent conduct towards a child under the age of 16, indecent assault and perverting the course of justice between 2008 and last year
A father allegedly groped his daughter’s bottom and made her look at his private parts in a string of indecent assaults that started when she was six years old, a court heard on Tuesday.
The father, 44, referred to as C.S.K. in the District Court to protect the daughter’s identity, is also accused of attempting to talk the 15-year-old into dropping her allegations by threatening to commit suicide.
The father denied two counts of indecent conduct towards a child under the age of 16, three counts of indecent assault and one of perverting the course of justice between 2008 and last year.
But in a video interview played during the trial on Tuesday, the daughter told a police officer of how she felt when she was first shown her father’s genitals. “ I was disgusted,” she said.
“It was perverted ... But if I didn’t look at him, I’m afraid he would hit me like he hit my mother,” the girl said in the video interview.
She testified on Tuesday through the court’s video conference system, confirming the contents of the interview on monitors placed behind a screen that separated the lawyers’ benches from the public for privacy reasons.
She told a police officer during the interview that the first alleged assault took place in 2008, when her mother was in hospital about to give birth to a son.
The girl, six at the time, alleged that her father told her to bend over on a bed, where he would grope and smack her bottom. The same happened again about eight or nine times.
On another occasion, his father showed his erect penis when her mother went shopping.
The girl said the alleged assaults became more frequent after her mother was discharged from hospital for a separate condition when she was in Form Two. She claimed she was molested about three times a week when her mother went jogging.
After every alleged assault, the girl, who became emotional at times during the interview, was told by her father not to tell her mother or she would be beaten to death, the court heard
“Why was I treated like that? And I was never compensated for it,” she said, complaining her father also never bought her things.
She said one of her brothers told her mother, who confronted her and informed social workers and police.
The prosecution alleged that after the father was arrested and charged, he called the girl to tell the police and her mother that the allegations were lies or else he would commit suicide. But in cross-examination, the girl said she was only asked to tell the truth.
The defence also suggested to her that the allegations were false. She denied the suggestion, but agreed she had a loving but strict father.
The trial continues on Wednesday before judge Alex Lee Wan-tang.
