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When a Hong Kong horse racing commentator was jailed for raping an employee he ‘didn’t consider his lover’

Theo

When a Hong Kong horse racing commentator was jailed for raping an employee he ‘didn’t consider his lover’

“A precinct commentator behaved like a child when an employee tried to wake him up, hours after he allegedly raped her,” the South China Morning Post reported on April 29, 1999. “Hung Wai-tak, 39, said, He pretended he was sleeping when the woman shook his hand to wake him on March 6 last year.

“’I behaved like a child because I wanted to win her affection (…) I was still in that mood,’ Hung (a popular jockey turned commentator) told the Court of First Instance. The woman had denied going near his bed after the alleged rape. Hung, who denies rape and insists they had consensual sex, told the court he did not consider the woman a lover.

“Hung did not remind the woman not to tell his wife about their encounter on March 6 because ‘I trusted her’.”

On April 30, the Post reported that “the woman admitted to washing away evidence that could have supported her claim (and) prosecutor Stanley Chan noted that the woman said she was in a confused state (…) and had herself, her nightgown, underwear, a sheet and pillowcases”.

Hung Wai-tak leaves the Hong Kong High Court with his wife before the verdict in his rape trial. Photo: SCMP

“Gary Plowman SC, defending, said she could have followed Lewinsky’s (Bill Clinton adviser Monica) example (but) ‘She knew Ms Hung would be back the next evening.’ She didn’t want Ms. Hung to know that she and her husband were in bed together.

“The defense also urged the jury not to be influenced by media coverage of the week-long trial.

“Sex and horse racing, he said, were what the Hong Kong public liked best, and their combination in his client’s case had attracted ‘quite a lot of attention’.”

On January 4, 2001, the Post confirmed that “Hung, 41, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for raping an employee, lost an appeal in October.”

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