HONG KONG: A fast food worker who raped his female colleague at their workplace in Sha Tin last year will be locked up in jail for four years.

The case broke when a video of the ordeal started to spread on the Web in September last year.

Ho Ka-kit, now 18, was earlier found guilty in the High Court of raping his co-worker, who has not been identified, at a Sha Tin branch of Yoshinoya. Both the victim and the perpetrator were 16 at the time of the attack.

Court of First Instance Justice Judianna Barnes Wai-ling said, "No one can force someone to have sex with him. The defendant has to learn to respect others' will and cannot force others to succumb."

Judge Barnes said she had already taken Ho's youth and his background into consideration when determining sentence.

She said the case was not the worst of its kind as Ho had not beaten up the girl during the rape.

Ho appeared calm as he heard his sentence.

Barnes said although Ho and the victim have or had a love affair, the jury did not accept Ho's argument that he wrongly believed the girl had agreed to have sex with him.

The judge noted the victim had screamed and had said she found it painful when Ho was raping her, but Ho had ignored the girl's pleas.

"It seems that the defendant was immature at the time of the incident and held an aberrant sex attitude. He assumed that if a girl had a crush on him and seemed open, he would then have no need to ask for permission," said Barnes.

To Ho, the girl might have seemed open, but it may not be the case, the justice said.

"The defendant should have ensured that the girl agreed before having sex with her," she said.

In passing sentence, Barnes made reference to a point in a psychological report which stated the defendant is impetuous and self-centered, but he is not considered a sexual deviant.

She said the victim acted like an ostrich in the wake of the accident and had continued to go to school and to work as usual in a bid to wash away the memory of the ordeal.

The victim was assessed as suffering from a medium level of depression, low self-esteem and to have become suspicious of men, after the attack, Barnes said.

The girl is still receiving psychological counseling, the court heard.

Ho's defense counsel Tony Li said the defendant had become more mature during the time he was held in custody and had tried to improve his relationship with his family.

Ho had also asked his brother to send him books so that he can continue learning, the lawyer said.

Barnes said she is happy to see the change in Ho, but the fact that he may have changed does not merit a lighter sentence.

Ho's co-worker Ma Ho-kan and the store's assistant manager, Kewell Li Hau-chung, were earlier acquitted of aiding and abetting the rape, but Barnes yesterday denied reimbursing them the litigation fees they incurred at magistrates' courts.

Barnes said Li had infringed the girl's privacy by filming the ordeal, despite the victim's disapproval while Ma had also been aware that the girl had refused to be filmed.

The court was earlier told that around 9 pm on one night in April or May last year, the victim had been asked to the manager's office at the eatery, where she had been raped by Ho.

Kewell Li filmed the attack with his mobile phone and had sent the video to another co-worker, the court heard.

The victim remained tight-lipped about the incident until the police probed the case when the video spread on the Web.

Outside the court, senior inspector of police Miu Ho-ming appealed to people to report to law enforcement when they spot on the Web any suspected illegal activities.

He also said the police are still attempting to trace the person who uploaded the video to the Internet, but they have yet to identify a suspect.

Yoshinoya issued a statement last night, describing the incident as an isolated case.

The company said a series of measures have been introduced since the incident, including introduction of an employee care program, installation of CCTV, staff training, a staff counseling hotline, and increased management visits to the company's restaurants.

The statement added that staff members connected to the rape are no longer employed by Yoshinoya.

(HK Edition 09/08/2009 page1)