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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Indecent Assault of Minor |
Sentence: |
4-1/2 years |
Years Imprisoned: |
1.25 |
Year Crime: |
2011 |
Year Convicted: |
2016 |
Year Cleared: |
2017 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
County or Region of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
City of Crime: |
Hong Kong |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"A female Filipino domestic helper was wrongly convicted in 2016 of three counts of indecent assault in Hong Kong. The woman's prosecution was based the prosecution's claim that at least twice she had sex with an underage boy -- the first time in 2011 when he was eight, and again in 2013. She was the boy's nanny for about four years -- from when he began attending kindergarten to the end of her contract in April 2013 when he was 10. During her trial the boy claimed that in 2011 she alleged the woman dragged him to his room, took off his pants, and molested him by inserting his flacid penis into her. He testified they had sex twice more, but he didn't know what happened until he received sex education at primary school in 2015. The boy's father is a police officer. The woman denied the accusations. She had short hair and dressed in a masculine fashion, and she told the court she was a lesbian who had no interest in males, and she had two lengthy same sex relationships since coming to Hong Kong in 2011. After her conviction she was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison. She appealed. On October 18, 2017 her conviction was overturned by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal of the High Court reversed her convictions based on irreconcilably unreliable testimony by the alleged victim. The Court's unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of Judge's Andrew Macrae, Ian McWalters and Derek Pang Wai-cheong stated about the confusing evidence: "For instance, the lower court had heard that the woman stood between the boy’s legs during the sex, with her legs together. The defence contested that position was not possible. The judge was left with the problem of deciding how the complainant could have achieved penetration of an adult woman … when his penis was, and apparently remained, “soft” throughout, when her legs were together and when Dr Ho, an expert prosecution witness, expressed the view that penetration in such circumstance was impossible." The prosecution did not seek a retrial. The Court restricted disclosure of the name of the woman and the boy." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"On October 18, 2017 her conviction was overturned by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal of the High Court reversed her convictions based on irreconcilably unreliable testimony by the alleged victim. The prosecution did not seek a retrial." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
45 |
Age When Released: |
46 |
Sex: |
Female |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
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Information Source 1: |
"Filipino woman jailed for sex with boy, 8, freed on appeal in Hong Kong, By Chris Lau, South China Morning Post, October 21, 2017" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2116357/filipino-woman-jailed-sex-boy-8-freed-appeal-hong-kong |
Information Source 2: |
"Filipino domestic helper accused of molesting eight-year-old boy tells Hong Kong court she’s a lesbian, By Chris Lau, South China Morning Post, February 3, 2016" |
Information Location 2: |
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1909155/filipino-domestic-helper-accused-molesting-eight-year-old |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org