Operator, staff of unlicensed Hong Kong massage parlour escape vice conviction after top national security cop caught there says he saw no sex for sale
- Former director of force’s national security branch Frederic Choi says he never saw any immoral services at the spa during his patronage
- Magistrate finds sexual services were provided at spa but not enough evidence to show establishment operated as vice venue
The owner and staff of a massage parlour patronised by a former Hong Kong national security director have been fined up to HK$20,000 (US$2,570) for operating without a licence but acquitted of running a vice establishment, after the senior policeman said he never saw any sexual services for sale.
Eastern Court Magistrate Jason Wan Siu-ming on Tuesday found that such services had been provided at Viet Spa in Wan Chai, frequented by Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Frederic Choi Chin-pang, formerly the director for the force’s national security branch.
But Wan said he could not be sure the parlour was fully or mostly used as a vice venue – a detail that would determine the legal definition of such establishments – after considering Choi’s testimony that he had never seen any employees offer immoral services during his patronage.
The magistrate convicted owner Wu Ping-hung, 63, and workers Li Yiqing, 38, and Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, 36, for their roles in the unlicensed spa, but acquitted them and a fourth defendant, masseuse Zhang Mingfang, 37, of charges relating to a vice establishment.
Wu was fined HK$20,000 and masseuses Li and Nguyen HK$8,000 each for managing the illegal premises.
Choi, 52, was found along with a masseuse inside a room at the venue during a police raid on March 19 last year.
He was stripped of his post and reassigned as the force’s head of training and discipline. An internal investigation cleared him of illegal conduct, but he still faces a civil service disciplinary hearing.
