Former care home warden and Hong Kong Paralympian sentenced to 33 months for ‘long-term’ indecent assault, starting when victim was seven
- Judge says Cheung Kin-wah abused position as a ‘trusted adult’ to abuse seven-year old
- Victim, now 44, haunted by feelings of fear, powerlessness and shame
A former Hong Kong care home warden and Paralympian was on Thursday jailed for 33 months for the indecent assault of a visually impaired girl at school more than three decades ago.
Deputy District Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung said Cheung Kin-wah, 57, abused his stature as a star student to commit shocking acts against the child, identified in court only as X, on five occasions starting when she was seven and he was 20.
Cheung’s pattern of indecent assault was described as long-term and systematic.
The judge acknowledged that Cheung’s own visual impairment would make his incarceration more difficult and cut three months off an original sentence of three years.
Cheung was convicted last month of five counts of indecent assault – an offence punishable by 10 years in prison – after the judge found he had kissed, groped and rubbed against X while they were at school and camp from 1982 to 1986.
[He] took full advantage of X’s visual impairment, innocence, timid character and low level of parental care
Although Lin noted that the indecency involved was not the most serious of its kind, he said the court had to consider the disparities in age, strength, position and power between Cheung and the victim.
