Man touched domestic helper’s breast to inspect her ‘sweat problem’ but Hong Kong court rules that contact alone does not prove him guilty of indecent assault

A 75-year-old man accused of molesting a domestic helper by claiming he had to inspect her “sweat problem” walked free from a Hong Kong court on Friday.

West Kowloon Court found Lei Hen-fang had touched the helper’s breast, but the contact alone did not prove his guilt.

“Although the court is sure the defendant touched the [helper’s] breast, it is not proven as to when and where he did it and whether the [helper] disagreed with him doing so,” magistrate Edward Wong Ching-yu said.

Lei, who is retired, was accused of molesting the Indonesian domestic helper, 26, on six occasions between June 16 and 20 in 2017. The helper, referred to as X in court, worked for Lei’s son who was travelling overseas at the time.

During the trial, X said the first incident had happened when Lei arrived at his son’s home and gave X a deodorant. He complained about her odour and asked her to take off her clothes so he could inspect where she was sweating.

He made X jump 20 times before he touched her breasts, the court heard, and then asked X to let him massage her breasts, a procedure he said could help with her sweat problem.

X also claimed Lei told her she could lose her job if the sweating problem persisted. She suffered further assaults, lasting between 15 and 30 minutes, in the next few days.

Lei pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent assault.

On Friday, the magistrate said it seemed to him the alleged assaults had been lengthy ones, involving a series of actions. Nonetheless, he said, X had never protested against them.

X testified she was afraid of being sent back home for defying Lei, who had threatened her with the loss of her job.

Wong pointed out that the threat only came after the defendant had touched her breasts for the first time.

X made a recording during which Lei admitted touching her breasts, but Wong said the audio clip only proved physical contact.

The magistrate also said X gave a version of events in court that was different to the one she had told police officers during the investigation.

He also heard that X had sent messages to Lei, thanking him at one point. He called the act “perplexing”.

Wong therefore concluded that X’s testimony was unreasonable and “intrinsically inconsistent”.

Domestic helper ‘raped twice by employer’ kept evidence of attack