SHE is dressed in tight, black shorts and a blue vest. It is late at night and the bright glare of the neon lights of Shamshuipo's busy streets barely manage to light the murky alley where she sits on a staircase.
Chow, her face painted with heavy makeup, is waiting for someone - a 'friend'.
But her date never arrives because a police officer watching from a car moves in, makes an arrest, and charges her with soliciting for an immoral purpose, an offence punishable by up to six months' jail and a $10,000 fine.
In North Kowloon Court a few weeks later, Chow, 38, pleaded not guilty to the soliciting charge and denied police allegations that she had stopped four men on the night in question and exposed her breasts while talking to them.
The mother of a 10-year-old boy was convicted and sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
A just verdict for a known Shamshuipo prostitute with a criminal history on similar charges? Or a miscarriage of justice highlighting a loophole in the law? Chow admitted to being a prostitute with previous convictions, but insisted that on the night of her arrest, she was just waiting for her boyfriend and had not spoken to anyone.
From her Tai Lam jail cell she lodged a High Court appeal.