Undercover policewoman's date with a rapist

Clutching an alarm in her handbag and a bunch of keys in her hand, policewoman Debby Chan Sau-wan stood in the lift lobby of a Tuen Mun public housing block hoping to keep a date with a serial rapist and murderer.

She was waiting as part of an undercover operation in an effort to catch a serial rapist preying on lone, long-haired women returning home late at night.

Decoration worker Lam Kwok-wai - the notorious Tuen Mun rapist - is now serving 11 life sentences. He attacked 10 women in 1992 and 1993 when in his early 20s, raping eight of them. The other two were strangled, as was one of the rape victims.

Ten years on, Inspector Chan has spoken in detail for the first time about how she acted as human bait in the operation aimed at ending Lam's 16-month reign of terror. Her testimony will be featured in the RTHK TV programme On the Beat , to be screened at 7pm on TVB Jade tonight.

Inspector Chan - who failed in her efforts to confront the rapist - was a constable when she was approached to set the trap. She was told that several other officers had already refused.

'I was told that a victim had died and several others had been raped. I was shown the photographs of the victims. I was told that I could die or be paralysed in the operation. I was very, very scared, but I agreed to take up the job. If police officers did not do it, nobody else would,' she said.

Inspector Chan and two other female officers underwent training, including how to protect themselves.