Hong Kong woman jailed for sex tape HK$500,000 blackmail bid after affair with married restaurant executive
- Former restaurant worker, 32, jailed for 2½ years for extortion attempt after secret affair turned sour
- Court hears woman harassed victim with ‘dozens’ of intimidating messages in September and October last year and demanded cash
A 32-year-old woman was jailed for 2½ years on Tuesday for the attempted blackmail of a married senior executive at a Hong Kong restaurant chain over their affair.
Wong Sa-sa, a former restaurant worker, demanded up to HK$500,000 (US$63,700) from the man and threatened to release intimate pictures and publicise their relationship if he failed to pay up.
Deputy district judge Jacky Ip Kai-leung said that the accused had taken advantage of the man’s reputation when she issued the threats, which caused so much stress he needed psychological treatment.
But Ip accepted the level of intimidation was not the highest compared with similar cases, and that the woman had acted alone and had not received any money.
The District Court found after trial earlier this month that Wong had harassed the man with dozens of intimidating text messages over a 27-day period in September and October last year in a bid to force him to pay her the cash to keep his infidelity a secret.
The court heard that Wong started an affair with the senior executive in early 2021 because of difficulties in her own marriage.
The complainant, who was granted anonymity by the court, was said to be a “fairly well-known” figure in the catering industry with 40 years of experience and was affiliated with a Hong Kong restaurant chain “of considerable scale”.
The pair became lovers in January last year and had sex in a hotel on six occasions, but the executive began to distance himself from Wong in July because he feared the affair would be exposed.
But Wong bombarded him with WhatsApp messages in August and later demanded money to keep her mouth shut.
Wong sent at least 13 intimidating messages to the man between September and early October last year and attempted to extort HK$150,000 to HK$500,000 with threats to leak pictures and footage of them in bed together.
Wong accused the executive of breaking his promise to take care of her for life, adding her requests for money were attempts to win back his affection as she wanted to reconcile with him.
Her defence counsel said she committed the offence because she was in love with the man and added Wong and her husband were getting a divorce.
Blackmail carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail, but is capped at seven years in District Court cases.