Vera Lui scarred for life after #MeToo nightmare – ‘it will always be ingrained in my mind’
- Hurdler’s former school coach acquitted in sexual assault case but Lui ‘will not be able to erase the memory of it’
- The 24-year-old vows ‘I won’t let it take over my life’ as she hunts Hong Kong record at World University Games in Naples
Hurdler Vera Lui Lai-yiu has managed to put her life back on track after enduring two major setbacks both on and off the field. But she’s back on the mend in more ways than one.
Last April, she competed in her first 100-metre hurdles race at Wan Chai Sports Ground, five months after she tore her posterior cruciate ligament. That injury came after she revealed she was a victim of an alleged sexual assault when she was 13 by her former school coach.
The case made unwanted headlines for Lui as she became the first major “Me Too” Hong Kong case that was inspired and spread like wildfire by the previously unheard movement in the United States, where it became a hashtag on social media against sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The case attracted huge media interest at the time and the police later stepped in to investigate.
Many lauded Lui’s bravery for stepping out and revealing her dark days – which had been previously thought as a taboo subject in Hong Kong – but she also received negative comments from people who thought she tried to use the #MeToo movement to somehow launch herself into stardom.