A 27-year-old woman accused of trying to extort HK$3 million from a 72-year-old businessman using a tape of the pair having sex said she went to bed with him after discovering her husband had cheated on her.
Gloria Chan Hok-yan, a former Asian Games rower, said in the District Court yesterday that she slept with the rich and married businessman, identified only as Mr X, when she was planning a divorce and after X suggested he could only take care of her if they were in a sexual relationship. She met X five years ago. Chan earlier pleaded not guilty to blackmail. She allegedly sent a letter, which X received on May 12, demanding he pay her money or she would release to the media a video of them having sex.
Sobbing, Chan said she agreed to have sex with the man, whom she at first treated as a godfather, because he had been caring and she eventually developed affection for him and wanted to maintain a husband-and-wife relationship with him.
X earlier told the court he and Chan were just friends and she was not important to him, although he admitted giving her more than HK$150,000. Chan told the court she had received about HK$300,000.
Chan said the man was the only one she could rely on when she discovered her husband, who was physically abusive, had been having an affair. X advised her to separate from her husband. Chan said her husband had been unemployed since 2006. They had been living on HK$8,000 a month in welfare, which her husband would not share with her - she said he only paid for food.
Chan also said the video had never existed and she had no intention of extracting money from X. She sent the letter to him because she wanted to frighten him as she was angry because he had spurned her after they had sex twice this year.