A Hong Kong court has cleared a 42-year-old coach of molesting a former player on the city’s women’s football team on two occasions in 2021 by highlighting inconsistencies in the complainant’s evidence.
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West Kowloon Court on Thursday found Wong Chi-wai not guilty of two counts of indecent assault and highlighted “crucial” discrepancies between the written and oral testimonies of the woman, who had also worked in the defendant’s sportswear firm.
Magistrate Peter Yu Chun-cheung said the witness, referred to as Y in court, had given inconsistent accounts of how Wong allegedly groped her chest while she was working at his company’s office in Cheung Sha Wan in May or June of 2021.
Yu said he was also unable to conclude that Wong must have intended to assault the woman when he patted and stroked her thigh during a brief meeting inside his car in January that year.
“Based on my observations on Y, I am unsure as to what had happened, and that I cannot safely accept her evidence,” the magistrate said.
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Wong was arrested in August 2022 following complaints by two women, who had both played for Hong Kong’s women’s football team and worked at his company.