Student with foot fetish sent to rehabilitation centre

A 16-year-old student with a foot fetish was sent to a rehabilitation centre yesterday after he preyed on two women just weeks after being placed on probation for 10 previous indecency offences.

The Form Four student pleaded guilty in Tuen Mun Court to two charges of indecent assault and one of loitering - including an incident in which he banged on a woman's door and asked for her shoes.

'I really don't understand what went through your mind at that moment,' Magistrate Kwok Wai-kin said, admonishing the teenager who told a court in June he found feet to be erotic after visiting pornographic websites.

The court heard the student was arrested two days before he was due to appear in court for a review of his probation on the earlier offences.

He was sentenced to a centre for rehabilitation and training where his release would depend on his progress, and he will be monitored after being set free.

The student admitted he followed a 37-year-old woman from a lift in a Tin Shui Wai housing estate, pretending to look for her neighbour. He grabbed her from behind, squatted down and lifted up her skirt as she was about to open a door.

He fled when she shouted at him but returned minutes later, banging on her door and pleading with her not to call the police. She shut the door but shortly afterwards he banged again, asking for the shoes she had worn.