CRIMINAL CASE NO. 111 OF 2011
COURT: Lee Hok-keung, you have been convicted after trial of raping Miss Irene Wong Tze-shan in the early morning of 3 September last year at your home in Ma On Shan.
At the time of that offence she was 18 years old and you were 10 years older. You had never met Miss Wong before that night.
That night she had gone to a bar called Club Zero in Mongkok with a male school friend. Unfortunately for her you were also in the bar that night.
Miss Wong was in a particularly vulnerable state. She had quarrelled with her boyfriend and wanted to go somewhere to chat about it with her school friend. She was drinking heavily.
At some stage during the evening you or your companion engineered an introduction to Miss Wong and you sat at her table. It would have been apparent to you that she was becoming more and more intoxicated. So much so that at about 5 am when the bar was about to close she was incapable of standing unaided and had effectively lost consciousness.
You took advantage of that situation. You carried Miss Wong from the club to the street below, accompanied by her school friend and your companion. Miss Wong’s schoolmate suggested that he would take a taxi and take Miss Wong to his own home where there was a spare bedroom where she could sleep off her intoxication.
You put forward an alternative suggestion. You pretended that you lived in To Kwa Wan and that it would be convenient to share a taxi. Your suggestion was that the best route would be for the taxi to drop off Miss Wong’s school friend at his home before you proceeded to accompany Miss Wong to her own home.
You assured Miss Wong’s school friend that you would treat her as though she was your younger sister. Nothing could have been further from the truth. As soon as you had dropped off Miss Wong’s companion you directed the taxi to go to your real home in Ma On Shan.
It is apparent from the photographs that were taken in the lift of the block where you lived that Miss Wong was incapable of standing and effectively unconscious when you took her up in the lift to your flat. Once inside your home you placed her on your bed and later you took advantage of her lack of consciousness to rape her.
I am prepared to accept that you did not rape her immediately and that about 20 minutes after you arrived with her at your flat, you left her for about eight minutes when you went down and bought a condom. The rape took place when you returned to the flat. Your use of the condom was one of the very few mitigating circumstances of this offence.
I am prepared to accept that there are no circumstances of particular aggravation in this case. I bear in mind that you are of previous good character but that is of limited significance in a case of this gravity.
I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in this case is 5 years’ imprisonment.
It would have taken Miss Wong considerable courage to report this matter to the police and to come and give evidence before this court.
You have not shown a trace of remorse for what you did. I find that there are no circumstances that would warrant any discount from the starting point to which I have referred.
I accordingly sentence you to 5 years’ imprisonment.