HONG KONG: A cop who confessed to raping a young woman and molesting three others at the Mong Kok police station will spend the next 12 years in jail.

Detective constable Leung Lai-chung, 30, had pleaded guilty in the Court of First Instance to three counts of indecent assault, one of rape and one of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Justice Darryl Saw said he saw no grounds for leniency in sentencing Leung, other than the one-third remission of sentence the cop-gone-bad earned for pleading guilty.

He said Leung abused the trust held by the general public for the police force and had used his position as a police officer to target and victimize the women.

Members of the public have the right to assume that they will be protected at police stations, the judge said.

Leung kept his head down while hearing his sentence yesterday and bowed to spectators before leaving the courtroom.

The court heard that Leung had asked the four victims, aged 16 to 21, to go to the police station between November 14 and 24 last year to help with police investigations.

Leung then called the women and sent telephone messages to his victims after sexually he abused them, the court was told.

Saw said Leung's subsequent contact with the victims after the assaults aggravated his offences.

The judge also said Leung's improper access to police records to obtain contact information about the women he targeted aggravated the seriousness of the crime even further. Defense counsel David Boyton noted a point in a psychiatric report that stated that the crimes Leung committed were not well-planned and that he would be unlikely to re-offend, however Saw said he believes that Leung had not committed the crimes by chance.

In passing sentence, justice Saw pointed to a psychological report which said the risk of the defendant's re-offending would be likely to increase if he were left unattended.

Saw said although the court had been told that Leung is remorseful, he believes that Leung's remorse arises from his personal consequences rather than for the trauma he caused his victims.

Following sentencing, Ng Lok-chun, the detective chief inspector at the Kowloon West Regional Crime Unit Four, said he respects the court's judgment and condemned Leung's acts.

"We will not tolerate such things in the police force. If any officer has integrity problems or commits crimes, we will handle it fairly," he said.

Ng said he believes Leung's case is an isolated incident and that most police officers serve with high integrity.

He said members of the public may check with the duty officer or policemen at the report room of the police station concerned when they are invited by telephone to the station or any other location to assist police with their inquiries.

Linda Wong Sau-yung, the executive director of the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women, called the sentence reasonable.

"He has not only brought harm to the victims, but has also ruined the image of the police force. Police officers are expected to protect citizens, not to harm them," she said.

Au Mei-po, an organizer of the Association for the Advancement of Feminism, said the public should be informed of their rights when assisting police with their investigations and of the guidelines law enforcers are expected to observe.

(HK Edition 09/19/2009 page1)