Nude video blackmail case rocks elite school

Police have arrested a 16-year-old boy suspected of blackmailing a fellow student at the Australian International School by threatening to post a video of her naked body on the internet. The boy is one of two students expelled by the leading international school for suspected criminal offences and reported to police since the start of term on October 12, according to the school, which charges annual fees of up to HK$112,000. Parents and students say the Kowloon Tong school has been rocked by the nude video incident and the expulsion of another 16-year-old boy for selling drugs, including marijuana and muscle-building steroids, to fellow students on campus. A police spokeswoman said last night that a 16-year-old boy, who had been expelled from Australian International School, was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of criminal intimidation and blackmail and had been released on bail. The youth was also assisting police with their inquiries into a case of assault occasioning actual bodily harm that took place outside an international school on Wednesday night. A police spokesman said the criminal intimidation and blackmail case had been reported to Kowloon City police station on October 27. 'It is alleged that a suspect threatened to publish naked images of a female on the internet unless he was paid money,' the spokesman said. One parent, who asked not to be named, said the two cases were just the latest of four expulsions this year, with a Year 11 student thrown out in the spring for stealing a wallet and a Year 10 student with a record of troublemaking kicked out last term. The father said his son had told him the student expelled for drugs was a big drugs supplier at the school and had approached him about muscle-building steroids, which could only be bought on prescription by adults. The father said the school had just held an assembly warning students about the dangers of drug abuse, when a student in his son's home group had threatened a girl with distributing a video clip, which showed her naked, to other students unless she paid him HK$2,000. Students said the girl had stripped off at the Year 10 student's request while they chatted over the internet on webcams and the boy had secretly recorded her, according to the father. A girl in Year 12, who asked not to be named, said someone had uploaded the nude video onto the internet two weeks ago and some boys had also been watching it on their mobile phones and had been suspended. The girl in the video, who students said had been in a relationship with the expelled boy, had appeared more subdued following the incident, the Year 12 girl said. Her friend, also in Year 12, said they both knew the 16-year-old boy, who had recently sought counselling for behavioural problems. 'We also saw him hitting a guy near our school on Wednesday,' she said. Secondary principal Phil Waugh said: 'Two students were expelled this term due to serious disciplinary breaches. Both of these have been of a criminal nature and have been appropriately reported to the police. 'Due to their ongoing investigations, and the need to protect students who have been affected by these incidents, we will not comment any further on these specific incidents. 'Our school does not tolerate criminal behaviour, particularly those that will compromise the welfare and education of others in a negative way. Our school is committed to providing students with a safe, supportive learning environment.' Waugh said the school had addressed the issues with student year groups in collaboration with its student counsellor and parents, using a combination of reward, guidance and discipline. The school would also be discussing the issue of criminal behaviour among students with 'the other top-tier international schools', to ensure that 'we monitor the situation between our schools and collaborate on the best ways to combat any disturbing trends'. Kenneth Chan Tsan-ming, an expert in juvenile behavioural problems at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said the crime rate among young people in the city had gone down over the past three years but drug abuse among children of school age was growing. And there had been a growing trend over the past five years of teenagers using their mobile phones to take videos of bullying incidents or couples petting and posting them on YouTube or other websites. 'This kind of tape does sometimes include videos of naked girls,' Chan said. 'I think this student is likely to have been directly influenced by this trend, which has been prevalent in Hong Kong and the mainland over recent years.' It was unlikely that the student was trying to imitate the sex-photo scandal involving Edison Chen Koon-hei and a number of female celebrities that transfixed Hong Kong last year, as Chen had not posted the pictures on the internet himself, but 'the influence was there', he added.