A Polytechnic University researcher is accused of recruiting a Filipino man to come to Hong Kong to work as a prostitute and of living off his earnings.
Wan Cho-yiu, 32, yesterday pleaded not guilty at the District Court to five charges, including human trafficking, living off the earnings from prostitution and drug possession.
Prosecutors said Wan had told police earlier that he had met Colegio Parker Bolanio online, paid for his air ticket to Hong Kong in December last year and taken 35 per cent of his earnings for over a week.
The court heard that on Boxing Day last year, a pedestrian saw a man calling out from an apartment on Changsha Street in Mong Kok. Concerned for the man's safety, the passer-by called the police.
When officers arrived at the flat they found Bolanio and Wan, prosecuting barrister Ivy Lau Yan-yan said.
During a search, police found condoms, lubricant, the drug Ice, drug paraphernalia and eight tablets of the sleeping pill zopiclone - a controlled substance.
Lau said that when police interviewed Wan, he told them he had met Bolanio, a Filipino man willing to provide sex services in Thailand, on a website called PlanetRomeo.com.