A High Court judge has urged yesterday that background information of tutorial school teachers be made available to parents after he sentenced a teacher to 56 months' imprisonment for repeated sexual assaults on youngsters over the past three decades.

The tutorial school teacher, 50-year-old Lam Tung-chun who is married, has been fined in 1976 for two indecent assaults. In 1997, he was imprisoned for 30 months for molesting two sisters in a tutorial school he opened.

He changed his name to Lam Cho-kin in 2003 when he opened another tutorial school in Tin Shui Wai, where he molested five girls aged between 12 and 15 under the guise of giving them a massage.

In delivering the sentence, Justice Louis Tong Po-sun said a male teacher should not have physical contact with female students and Lam's behavior was serious.

Lam's psychological report said he has a high tendency of re-committing the offence as he is a pedophile who is sexually interested in young girls.

Justice Tong said not only did Lam not actively seek treatment after committing the previous offences, he attempted to get close to girls by opening a tutorial school. Tong said a deterrent sentence should be imposed.

The minimum penalty for the nine counts of indecent assault is seven years, but a discount of one-third is given as Lam has pleaded guilty.

The court has heard that Lam expressed his intention to open another tutorial school after serving his sentence.

Justice Tong said parents have the right to know the background of teachers, and urged the government to consider the interest of various parties before deciding whether to make the information available.

City University applied social studies associate professor Dennis Wong said establishing a sex offender database could be useful, but added that the number of people who have access to the database should be restricted.

"Hong Kong cannot afford to have more of these offences," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the Law Reform Commission has established a committee in 2006 to review the necessity of such a database.

But the spokesman said the issue was controversial and complicated, and the government has not stipulated a timeline for the review process.

(HK Edition 03/11/2008 page1)