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Joyce Man

A woman who died days after withdrawing her allegations of rape had feared the authorities would prosecute her, a former boyfriend said yesterday.
Sin Yuk-hang was testifying at an inquest into the death of Chan Lai-ping, who apparently fell from the flat of another boyfriend in Tuen Mun on October 22, 2011.
The Coroner's Court heard earlier that Chan, then 24, had been a Form Seven night school student who sometimes posed for private photography shoots.
She reported to police alleging that a man called Aaron raped her in a hotel room on October 13, 2011, after their third photo session.
Kwok Wai-keung, the other boyfriend, told the court yesterday that he found out later that the man was a doctor.
The court earlier heard he had emigrated.
Chan made a statement to the police after the alleged rape, but decided to retract her claim on October 18.
Four days later, she was found dead at the base of Kwok's residential block on Tin King Estate. Kwok lived on the 25th floor.
Sin said Chan had lived with him from 2007 until she moved to Kwok's shortly before her death.
Testifying on the third day of the inquest, Sin said that after Chan had withdrawn her allegations, she was worried that the police would prosecute her.
He said she had told him that she was worried they would find out she had two boyfriends by examining her phone, and that they might accuse her of compensated dating or something similar.
Sin accused the police officer who took one of Chan's statements of having a "poor attitude".
"I heard from outside the room the sound of her hitting the table," Sin said in reply to a question from coroner's officer Laura Ng Shuk-kuen.
The look in the police officer's eyes seemed to show she discriminated against Chan, he said.
Sin said he had suggested that Chan withdraw her allegations after considering the evidence against Aaron and the fact that she had two boyfriends, which would suggest she was not innocent.
Kwok had told her to pursue her complaint only if she was prepared to withstand the pressure that the matter would bring.
But senior government counsel Matthew Leung Man-liang said the idea that the police would prosecute Chan was merely something she had thought up.
The police witnesses in the case did not put any pressure on her to change her statements or withdraw them, said Leung, who represented the commissioner of police at the inquest.
A post-mortem found Chan died of multiple injuries consistent with a fall from a height.
The case continues before Coroner Philip Wong Wai-kuen and a jury of five.
 


Woman told of prosecution fears

News

Hong Kong

Alleged rape victim who apparently fell to her death was afraid police would charge her for withdrawing the accusation, her ex-boyfriend says
