Advertisement
Advertisement
The District Court building in Wan Chai

Hong Kong judge calls for sex offenders' list to be made public as paedophile tutor jailed for 5 years

JULIE CHU

A judge urged the government to make the sex offenders' register available to the public after hearing a paedophile claimed he would want to work as a tutor again when released from prison.

At the District Court on Monday, Judge Amanda Woodcock jailed Ching Ka-lun, 28, for five years and two months for molesting two girls, aged from six to 11 years old.

Ching, who committed the offences between 2010 to 2014, also made videos with one of the girls and possessed more than 180,000 images and videos featuring child pornography.

Woodcock said Ching had seriously breached the trust of the girls and their families. She was also shocked to learn Ching once told a psychologist he would want to tutor again after serving his sentence.

After pleading guilty to the charges, Ching claimed this plan was "otherwise" now. But the judge said: "There is still nothing to prevent him doing so."

Woodcock said that since the government's sex offenders' list was only available to prospective employers, parents had no way to check the background of the tutor they hired to teach their children. "I hope there will be such a sexual offenders' register list for the public in the near future," she added.

The court heard that Ching had been a university graduate with no criminal record. He joined a volunteer development programme and was introduced to girl Y's family to provide lessons for the then seven-year-old in June 2010.

Ching bought small gifts to cheer Y sometimes and began to molest her during their private lessons. He also took naked videos of Y when she was eight. He continued to molest Y until she was 11.

Ching was introduced to girl X's family last year and became then six-year-old X's tutor. He molested X during their private lessons at X's home between October and November last year.

X later told the family's domestic helper what had happened and she informed the girl's mother. The case was reported to the police.

The judge referred to a psychologist's report on Ching describing him as "socially withdrawn". He was aware of his interest in young girls since he was 12 and began to access child pornography on the internet in 2009.

The psychologist found Ching had "no insight of his problems" and "no empathy in the victims".

In a letter to the court, Ching described himself as "evil". He felt remorse and claimed he was willing to receive psychological treatment for his problems.

The court was told both girls suffered post-traumatic stress after the incidents, but were now recovering.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Judge calls for public sex offenders list as tutor jailed
Post