Police arrest Hong Kong taxi driver accused of molesting passenger he picked up at Lan Kwai Fong
- Driver said to have indecently assaulted woman after she fell asleep, then dragged her out of vehicle when she awoke and put up a struggle
- Detectives identified taxi driver using surveillance camera footage that captured vehicle’s plate number, and arrested him on same day
The sources said officers arrested the 50-year-old man at a village house in the New Territories at about 11.30am on Sunday, less than eight hours after the case was reported.
The victim was a 25-year-old foreign woman who had jumped into a taxi in the early hours of Sunday after a night of drinking with friends in the Central bar district.
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An investigation suggested she was indecently assaulted in the back seat after the taxi pulled over on Caine Road near the junction with Aberdeen Street in Mid-Levels, one source said on Monday.
“She was molested when she fell asleep inside the vehicle,” he said, adding that the victim was pulled out of the vehicle when she woke up and began to struggle.
The case came to light when a passer-by found the victim crying on the street. The taxi had left by the time police arrived.
Detectives from the Central district crime squad identified the driver using surveillance camera footage that captured the taxi’s plate number.
At around 11.30am on the same day, officers raided a village house at Tai Nai Tun Tsuen in Yuen Long and picked up the suspect.
Officers also seized clothing the man was allegedly wearing at the time of the incident.
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The suspect maintained that the passenger was pulled out of the vehicle because she failed to tell him where she wanted to go, another source said.
As of Monday afternoon, the suspect was still being held for questioning and had not been charged.
In the first six months of the year, police handled 483 reports of indecent assault, up nearly 69 per cent from 286 in the same period in 2020.
