I wanted love, not easy cash: Mr X's mistress

A karaoke hostess accused of blackmailing her former lover, a senior government official, said she was not interested in 'freeloading or taking short cuts' to resolve her financial problems, the District Court heard yesterday.

Hui Wing, 36, a divorcee from Hubei, said she was forced to work at the karaoke nightclub in Mong Kok in October last year after her business on the mainland went bankrupt and she needed to pay two mortgages. It was at the club that she met the official - referred to as Mr X in court to protect his identity.

'I have financial pressures, but I have never thought of freeloading or taking short cuts [to repay the mortgages],' the teary woman said during cross-examination. Hui said she never 'demanded anything from Mr X, other than mutual love'.

Hui has denied two counts of blackmailing Mr X for HK$500,000 in March and May, by threatening to make known their love affair and a sex video after he ended the relationship. She insisted that HK$500,000 was a joint savings target on which they had both agreed.

Their savings had reached HK$120,000 over the course of four months with most of the money being contributed by Hui, whose monthly income as a hostess at the club averaged HK$40,000. Even after she met Mr X, Hui said she worked for more than 15 hours a day, making around HK$240 per hour, while contributing an average HK$25,000 a month to their plan.

Judge Andrew Chan Hing-wai put it to her that with her average monthly income, the woman could have reached the savings target within a year without the financial support of Mr X.