VLC SCMP Corner

Sex-for-exorcism accused cleared

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

MO PUI YEE

allegations	expel	credibility	account	procure	credulity
awarded	immature	refute	arrant	acquitted	claimed

Enter your name:

A former prostitute's story that she was lured to bed by a man who he could exorcise an evil spirit he said was possessing her was dismissed by a judge yesterday as " nonsense". District Court judge Richard Day Tse Wun, 48, who denied attempting to another person for an unlawful sex act under false pretences.

Judge Day also legal costs of $80,000 to the noodle shop delivery worker. The woman, now 20, had she was lured to spend the night of June 2 last year with Mr Tse in a guesthouse at Yau Ma Tei, where he unsuccessfully tried to have sex with her. The woman, 19 at the time, told the court she would not have gone to the guesthouse had Mr Tse not led her to believe she was possessed by a ghost and that the only way to it was to have sex with him.

Judge Day rejected her evidence entirely: "She is in any view a silly, girl who tells a story about ghosts and evil spirits which stretches the bounds of . . . her evidence is nonsense."

The judge said police officers handling the case should have been more careful because of this kind were "easy to make and very difficult to ". Judge Day also refused to order payment of witness fees to the woman, who attended court yesterday and on Monday to give evidence.

The judge said he had taken into the fact that she had worked as a karaoke hostess and had at one time offered sexual services for money. "Prostitutes are entitled to the protection of law as is everyone else, but frankly this particular offence suggests a degree of which one would not normally associate with such a profession."