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A Hong Kong court has sentenced a former teacher to 2½ years in jail for engaging in obscene acts with her son and producing suggestive videos involving her children, with the presiding judge slamming her for breaching the trust placed in her as a mother. The District Court on Tuesday sentenced the mother of three on two counts of gross indecency towards a child under 16 and three of making child pornography, after she admitted to taking pleasure from her son pretending to have sex with her. The court heard the 36-year-old defendant had worked as a teacher in mainland China before moving to Hong Kong to live with her husband at a Prince Edward flat in March 2016. The couple separated in February 2024 and commenced divorce proceedings three months later. In June that year, the husband handed over to police three video clips he received from the accused before their relationship turned sour. Two of the videos, believed to be taken between 2019 and 2020, showed the couple’s two-year-old son mimicking his parents’ sexual acts on his half-naked mother. The third video, which showed an incident between 2021 and 2022, captured the then four-year-old boy showing his genitals to his younger sister, who was less than a year old. Under caution, the defendant admitted taking the videos with her mobile phone and said her son would also pretend to have sex with his younger siblings. A presentencing assessment showed the accused did not have any deviant sexual interest and represented a low reoffending risk. A government psychiatrist said the defendant could have been suffering from adjustment disorder at the time of the offences due to stress. Defence lawyers in mitigation attributed the mother’s transgressions to her simple-mindedness and poor judgment, saying she was prone to the “systemic abuse” and “corrosive control” of her husband. The defendant was forced to remain naked at the flat and have sex with her partner in front of their children, the court heard. The defence also highlighted the husband’s “highly questionable motive” in making the police report, suggesting it was the “calculated act of a resentful husband”. Upon the court’s request for clarification, lawyers confirmed the former teacher had entered a guilty plea on all charges voluntarily and that she knew what she did was wrong. Deputy Judge May Chung Ming-sun rejected the defendant’s self-portrayal as a victim and slammed her for failing her parental duty to protect her children from harmful influence. She pointed out the accused had received tertiary education on the mainland, while getting regular help from social workers when the family was experiencing financial difficulties. “This is not the case that she succumbed to her sexual desires only once. She repeatedly preyed on her children,” Chung said. While acknowledging the obscene videos were not taken for commercial distribution, the deputy judge warned that the risk of leaking the footage to third parties could not be ruled out. She sentenced the defendant to 22 months’ imprisonment for the indecency offences, and eight to 12 months on the child pornography counts, for a total of 30 months after ordering a partially consecutive sentence.
