Fearing she would be raped by her 43-year-old employer, a Filipina domestic helper set up a video camera to capture evidence of his indecent actions.
The video was played before Hong Kong’s Kwun Tong Court on Wednesday showing the employer, Shek Kwok-ngai, exposing his penis while gazing towards the camera of the Filipina, who was only identified as X for legal reasons, in a report by South China Morning Post.
The decision to take the video footage comes after X noticed Shek fondling his private parts on three occasions in 2014.
“I was disgusted within,” said X, when asked how she felt viewing the video for the first time.
Shek pleaded not guilty to four counts of indecent assault and one of common assault on the Filipina helper between February 26 and March 3, 2014.
“When I heard voices at night, I would sit up because I was worried that somebody would enter my room … He could enter my room and rape me,” X tearfully recalled in her court testimony.
X has since left Shek’s home. But when she asked to be allowed to pack her belongings and get paid so she could repay her placement agency, X was told by the defendant’s wife that she would not get anything unless she agrees to delete the video.
Apparently unwilling to heed the condition, X eventually left. On her way out, Shek reportedly chased after her, carrying his child.
“He was saying that I should pity his child and that I should not make any trouble,” she recalled.
According to public prosecutor Anna Lai, X allegedly saw Shek masturbate from a television reflection while she was attending his daughter. Later that day, Shek allegedly exposed his privates again, through a reflection in a glass cabinet, causing her to spill the soup she was feeding to the girl. Lai alleged that Shek touched his genitals over his clothing near X the next day. And the day after, X said, Shek allegedly breathed heavily behind her, which Lai argued amounted to common assault.
Defense lawyer Selwyn Yu SC challenged the Filipina helper’s credibility in a cross-examination, asking why X instructed her lawyers to send a six-figure civil claim to his client two weeks prior to the trial. X denied instructing her lawyers to send the letter of claim.
The trial continues on Thursday before Magistrate Vennie Chiu Wai-yee.