Victim is asked why she met accused
Counsel for academic in indecent assault case asks why woman kept meeting him alone in bars
A woman who claims a prominent academic molested her faced questions in court over why she continued to go to bars alone with him after he allegedly touched her indecently.
The woman, named in Eastern Court only as X, responded there was no way she could not go as she needed to discuss work with him.
Lee Ngok, 73, denies six charges of indecently assaulting the 39-year-old woman, a colleague at a non-profit community college, on five occasions between 2007 and 2010. He also denies two charges of indecent assault on another woman.
X earlier told the court she had been working on documents for regulators in relation to the validation of the college's associate degree programmes. Lee was advising her on the matter.
On the first occasion, in early 2007, she said Lee touched her thigh, but stopped when she leaned away. Later, he tried to kiss her and touched her bottom.
"Do you agree that you could have avoided going out alone with him?" Bruce Tse, for Lee, asked X yesterday. "You could have asked another colleague to join you."
X said Lee had asked her to go out to discuss work. The times he asked for were outside office hours and she was unable to find a colleague to accompany her. "I didn't want to go, but there was no way I could not go."