Domestic helper loses million-dollar sexual assault claim against Hong Kong employer
- Judge rules plaintiff’s ‘improbable, unimaginable and illogical’ assertions outweighed defendant’s self-contradictory account of events
A domestic helper has lost a HK$1.06 million (US$135,76o) claim against a retired doctor for alleged sexual assaults during her employment after a Hong Kong court found her allegations to be “bursting with inherent improbabilities”.
The District Court ruled on Tuesday the plaintiff’s “improbable, unimaginable and illogical” assertions outweighed the defendant’s inconsistent and self-contradictory account of the events spanning eight months in 2018 and 2019.
The Filipino worker, who was 40 at the time, testified to being assaulted under the guise of a medical check-up in September 2018, when Brian Drew Apthorp allegedly removed her clothes and molested her.
The worker claimed Apthorp, who is from Britain, later asked the helper to give him daily massages, during which he would lie naked and masturbate.
The doctor also made the plaintiff whip him on a weekly basis for sexual pleasure and asked her to watch a sex video involving him and two of his previous helpers, she claimed.
Deputy Judge David Chan said he was unable to accept the plaintiff’s case due to the manifold discrepancies found in her sworn statements made in court, including in two previous criminal trials in 2020 and 2022 that ended with Apthorp’s acquittal.
Chan noted some key details relating to the claimed body check, including whether the defendant indeed touched her breasts and whether he was wearing gloves when purporting to inspect her genitals, were left out of her written statements.
