Nurse to pay HK$946,000 for six years of harassment
Joey Yip Lai-kuen, 34, whose desperate efforts for a reunion inspired a movie, was also restrained by an injunction from harassing or contacting Lau Tat-wai, 30, and his family. She was also barred from going within 30 metres of his or his family's flat and his workplace.
A nurse who subjected her ex-boyfriend to a six-year campaign of harassment was ordered yesterday to pay him almost HK$1 million in compensation.
"The wrongs committed by the defendant against the plaintiff over the course of nearly six years have made a misery of a young man's life and, by any standard, are outrageous," Mr Justice Anthony Chan Kin-keung wrote, ordering Yip to pay HK$946,673.
Lau, a former engineer, told the High Court that Yip had stalked him, bombarded him with calls and messages and recruited debt collectors to splash red paint not only on the gate of his flat but also on his mother.
She also circulated missing person notices of Lau online and distributed posters describing Lau as having Aids.
It drove him to stay in Japan for a time, and his mother and brother moved to Shenzhen for two months.
The court heard that the two met in a Japanese language class in 2007. They quickly developed a relationship but Lau decided to end it after four months.