Banker has indecent assault conviction quashed after Hong Kong court accepts ‘sexsomnia’ defence
- Boris Anthony Finan, 28, had been sentenced to five months in prison for assaulting a female friend during party in hotel room
- Judge rules condition, which occurs when a person engages in sexual acts while asleep had not been adequately considered at original trial
A Hong Kong court on Thursday quashed a banker’s indecent assault conviction after finding his defence of sexsomnia, also known as sleep sex, had not been adequately considered at trial.
Sexsomnia, as explained by deputy High Court judge Sham Siu-man, is a medical condition which occurs when a person engages in sexual acts while asleep.
“As it happens while sleeping, something akin to sleepwalking, the sufferer would be unconscious of what he is doing at the time and have no memory of it after waking up,” Sham said. “It is a medical condition, which if accepted may in law amount to [a] defence.”
At issue was whether Boris Anthony Finan, a 28-year-old financial planning manager, could use the condition as a defence for assaulting a long-time friend, identified in court only as Madam X, during a party in a hotel room on July 10, 2016.
West Kowloon Court Magistrate Matthew Leung had considered Finan dishonest and unbelievable when he imposed a five-month jail term for one count of indecent assault after hearing both parties’ accounts in the case.
But Sham sided with defence counsel John Reading SC in finding Leung had erred in his analysis of the defence case, resulting in an “unsafe and unsatisfactory” conviction.