When a university student, drugged and sexually assaulted by her boss, ended up dead

“Hon and Wong have denied murdering Luk at the Royal Park Hotel, Sha Tin, on July 24 last year but have admitted manslaughter. Hon, 33, described as a ‘Hong Kong success story’, got to know Luk after she joined his property company, Dairy Sky Industries, during a college holiday.

“Prosecutor Pat Loftus said Wong, 28, lured Luk to the hotel on the pretext of giving her a birthday party. Wong’s defence counsel, Niall Stirling, said the former karaoke hostess had been ‘infatuated’ with Hon, who held considerable influence over her. The pair had started an affair after Hon suggested Wong could repay a $50,000 loan with sexual favours at $5,000 a time. Mr Stirling said: ‘He told her he would like to treat her as a mistress, but he wanted to shoot a videotape of her as some sort of token he would retain. He said if she refused to be filmed she would be dismissed and would immediately have to repay the debt. A video film was made of the two of a sexually explicit nature.’

“‘Prior to that he had had sexual relations with two other of his female employees and made video films of them, again of a sexually explicit nature.’ But Mr Stirling said that in July the businessman told Wong, who also worked for his firm, he wanted sex with someone else and suggested Luk. Mr Stirling added that ‘[Hon] said he would want to shoot a videotape of her naked body as he liked to shoot videotapes of girls with whom he had sexual activities to keep as souvenirs. When police raided his home they found a number of videotapes including one involving the first and second defendants in various sexually explicit situations.’”

On November 10, the couple “had their jail sentences substantially increased by the Court of Appeal. The court agreed 8 ½ years and seven years imprisonment imposed [on Hon and Wong, respectively] were manifestly inadequate and increased them to 15 and 12 years.