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.
He also expressed disbelief that Apthorp, who was 80 when the woman began working for him, would engage in sexual activities on almost a daily basis.
Chan said he was dumbfounded by the worker’s willingness to sign the employment contract six days after the alleged assault during the medical check-up, without making any protest, given the supposed risk of being further exploited or even raped by the accused in the future.
Adding to the absurdity was the fact the plaintiff signed the contract without knowing her remuneration and other essential terms, the deputy judge noted.
He also found it inexplicable that she would choose not to tell her friends, church or boyfriend, whom she met once during a visit back to her native country, about the alleged attacks.
“When one looks at the full picture, the plaintiff’s case is bursting with inherent improbabilities,” Chan said.
“Considering the plaintiff’s experiences working as a domestic helper in Hong Kong prior to her employment with the defendant, her working experiences abroad, and her educational background, I do not believe that she would be so innocent, naive, and helpless, to not know her rights, or that she was sexually abused by the defendant, if what she said were true.”
The deputy judge found Apthorp’s account unconvincing either, noting that the latter had provided inconsistent explanations as to the procedure he undertook during the body check on the plaintiff.
Chan said the retired doctor also contradicted himself by denying the use of sexual instruments for self-gratification when he confessed in court to taking a video of himself being whipped by two former helpers.
He also found it ludicrous for Apthorp to deny asking the plaintiff to watch pornography with him with the assertion she had once brought him video clips of sex acts from the Philippines.
Apthorp was jailed for 30 months on two counts of indecent assault arising from the worker’s complaints, but his convictions were quashed upon a successful appeal. A retrial in 2022 ended with his acquittal on all charges.
