Accountant sent to prison for soliciting sex from minors

Updated: 2010-03-10 07:40

By Timothy Chui(HK Edition)

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Henry Chui Che-hung, a 61-year-old former chartered accountant was sentenced yesterday to four years and eight months in prison for committing a series of sex acts on three underage girls.

His 2008 arrest led to the discovery of CD stacks with videos of the girls performing sex acts. During the investigation, officers also discovered a Yau Ma Tei flat, furnished with mirrored walls and a concealed pinhole camera, where Chui habitually took the girls.

"We reviewed 100 discs and found the names of about 100 girls listed on Chui's mobile phone and computer contacts," Chung said.

Chui, a family man and former director of accounting firm H.C. Watt, was convicted on three counts of indecent assault on another person, one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16, one count of attempted buggery with a girl under 21 and two counts of buggery with a girl under 21.

Chui served as an honorary treasurer of the Hong Kong Scout Association for 40 years. His "behavior showed a gradual escalation in seriousness," High Court Judge Michael McMahon declared.

Accountant sent to prison for soliciting sex from minors

McMahon cited the disparity in age between Chui and the girls, the "corrupting influence of increasing amounts of monetary payments" and the refusal to use condoms in some of the encounters as aggravating factors.

Chui "displayed all the characteristics of a predator," McMahon said, adding that a deterrence sentence was required since "young females seem exceptionally vulnerable to this type of predation."

During mitigation, Chui's barrister senior counsel Andrew Macrae presented several letters from family, clients and friends, describing their utter disbelief that Chui could be capable of said crimes.

Macrae reminded the court that Chui had not sought bail since his arrest and was very forthcoming and remorseful about the charges.

According to court documents, Chui's liaison with underage girls spanned a three and a half month period beginning in November 2008 when he arranged to have dinner with a 16-year-old girl he had met online.

In some cases he would pay girls HK$200 for every girl they referred for dinner. Chui also used a forum to advertise that he would pay HK$300 to girls who joined him for dinner.

Three girls, two aged 14 and one 15 at the time of the offences, answered Chui's post and had dinner with him before joining him at the National Court flat in Yau Ma Tei, where they engaged in various sex acts in exchange for sums ranging from HK$800 to HK$1,500.

In a February, 2009 exchange, one of the girls, surnamed Hung, went with Chui to the flat and had anal intercourse.

Later in the evening Hung complained to her boyfriend about the painful encounter and said she would not have consented to take part in the sex act if she had not lost her mobile phone.

Subsequently, Hung disclosed her relationship with Chui to a school social worker, who in turn alerted police. They arrested Chui on April 28, 2009.

Following the sentencing of Chui, chief inspector Chung Chi-ming said young girls should resist the allure of quick cash though compensated dating.

(HK Edition 03/10/2010 page1)