Unwed sex, nudity in rituals are affronts to God, Taoist master says

No Taoist rituals or scripts include having sex as a way of getting wishes granted, a Taoist master has told a court hearing allegations that a teenage model was duped into having sex as part of such a ritual.

'As far as I know the two schools of Taoism, Quanzhen and Zhenyi, they make wishes through readings at the altar to heaven,' Tony Chau Woo-loi, general secretary of Ching Chung Taoist Association of Hong Kong, said. 'I haven't seen any other formats.'

Chau was giving evidence as an expert witness at the trial of Au Yeung Kwok-fu, 55, who is alleged to have duped the 19-year-old model into having sex with him nine times as part of a purported ritual to change her career luck.

Au Yeung, a dumper truck driver, has pleaded not guilty in the District Court to nine counts of procuring unlawful sexual acts by false pretences.

The court heard earlier that the model became pregnant after one encounter and had an abortion. The teenager has testified that Au Yeung, who claimed to be a practitioner of the Mao Shan denomination, asked her to undress, wrote symbols on her body then asked her to have oral sex and intercourse with him.

Chau, a land developer who said he had practised Taoism since 1991 and had taken part in eight or nine 'large-scale Taoist rituals', yesterday told the court that being naked in a ritual would 'desecrate God'.