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SCMP Reporter

A man jailed last year for running the popular online prostitution guide Best161.com walked free yesterday after a judge allowed his appeal for a reduction of his 18-month prison term.
Chan Yuk-bun, 48, and six employees were convicted  in the District Court and sentenced to jail in May by  David Dufton, then deputy judge, for conspiring to live off the earnings of prostitutes.
It was the first case in which employees involved in running internet advertisements for sex workers were prosecuted.
Yesterday, senior public prosecutor David Leung Cheuk-yin conceded to the appeal application before Mr Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen and Mr Justice Alan Wright, sitting in the Court of Appeal.
He agreed with  barrister Francis Yip Kim-ming that Mr Chan, who had spent 13 months in jail, could be immediately released.
Ordering Mr Chan's immediate release, the judges reserved their reasons.
Last year, the court heard that Mr Chan's company, iChannel Media, earned money  from advertisements that appeared on the Best161.com website between March 2003 and May 16, 2006.
The website mainly helped women  in brothels advertise on the internet, with details such as the prostitutes' names, ages, services offered, fees, addresses and pictures.
The company would send  photographers to the brothels to take pictures of prostitutes, which would be uploaded to the website and included in the advertisements.
The prostitutes were charged HK$600 a month.
Mr Chan had expanded his company's business operations since early 2004 and recruited the six employees. At sentencing, Judge Dufton accepted that the prostitutes in the case were not subjected to control, influence or direction.
But he said the case was serious because it was 'a sophisticated operation' and 'encouraged prostitution on a large scale' for three years.



Online brothel-guide operator freed