Alleged indecent assault victims say they had ‘respected and trusted’ accused university consultant
Colleague of respected figure in education claims he pulled her to him and tried to kiss her
A prominent academic touched a female colleague on the bottom and then tried to kiss her, a court heard yesterday.
Lee Ngok, 73, then deputy president of a non-profit further education college, was reviewing documents with the 39-year-old woman at a hotel bar in Causeway Bay in 2010, when he slid his hand down her back to her bottom and asked her to drink his glass of wine, the woman - identified only as X - told Eastern Court.
He then allegedly touched her bottom again in the hotel lift lobby as he tried to kiss her, she said.
Lee is facing six charges of indecently assaulting the woman on a total of three occasions and two charges of indecently assaulting another female colleague. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
At the time of the alleged assaults in 2010, X had been preparing documents that had to be reviewed by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications in order for the college to continue to offer its associate degree programmes, the court heard.
X described Lee as a "well-known and influential" figure in the education sector whom she had "trusted and respected". He was giving advice on documents for the revalidation.
When he asked her to drink his glass of wine on the evening of January 5, 2010, in the Dickens Bar at The Excelsior Hotel, she complied out of fear of offending him and damaging the college's chances of securing the revalidation from the council, the court heard. She told the court: "If I angered him, upsetting him so that he wouldn't help us, then the whole school would be affected."
