‘You can’t scare me. I am not your wife’: Hong Kong judge shuts down bully, 77, found guilty of raping daughter, 10
- Man cross-examined wife and daughter during trial so loudly that he was ordered to move out of courtroom into corridor
- He calls judge ‘unprofessional’ over verdict and vows to appeal
A 77-year-old man who aggressively challenged a Hong Kong judge after being found guilty of repeatedly raping his daughter starting when she was 10 was sharply reprimanded in court on Tuesday.
“If you think you can scare me with your loud voice, you are wrong,” Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai said. “I am not your wife. I am not your daughter.”
The man, named only as Y.H.L. in court to protect his daughter’s identity, was found guilty moments earlier on three counts of rape. But he remained uncharacteristically silent, until the prosecutor revealed he had prior convictions, one of which involved an assault on his wife.
Man, 77, raped daughter ‘almost every Saturday’ for two years, court hears
“I never assaulted [my wife] nor did I rape [my daughter],” he shouted from the dock in Mandarin. “The judge is unprofessional, I am going to appeal.”
But Chan countered that he had seen through the man’s methods when he tried to scare both women while conducting his own defence during the trial.
“In court I have seen men who are more cunning and fierce,” Chan said.
The High Court previously heard that the part-time security guard began sexually assaulting his daughter in 2015 while his wife, who is 20 years his junior, was away from home.
If you think you can scare me with your loud voice, you are wrong
The child shouted and cried in pain, but was silenced by her father, who warned her not to tell anyone.
Since then, the assaults happened “almost every Saturday”, according to what the girl told police.
The mother found out about what was happening on February 3 last year, after she noticed the girl’s underwear was stained with secretions. She asked her daughter if she had been raped.
The case was reported to police with the help of a social worker.
Y.H.L. had cross-examined the two women himself during the trial, at times so loudly that he was ordered to move out of the courtroom and into the corridor for questioning.
He was convicted by a seven-member jury on three counts of rape, by two majority verdicts of 5-2 and a unanimous verdict of 7-0, following four hours of deliberation. The 23-day trial ended on Tuesday.
Chan observed that the case was one of the longest rape trials he had presided over and exempted the jury from service for 10 years to show gratitude for their patience.
Prosecutor Terence Wai stated Y.H.L. was a university graduate who had fathered four children: two sons with his ex-wife, plus a son and daughter from his current marriage.
Wai also revealed the man had two prior convictions, which included a case of assaulting his wife in 2012.
The Post was told the wife has filed for divorce after discovering the present case.
Mitigation and sentencing is adjourned to December 4.
Rape is punishable by life imprisonment in Hong Kong.
