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Verdict reserved in case of retired British doctor accused of molesting helper

27 November 2022

By The SUN

 

Eastern Magistrate Edward Wong will give his verdict on Dec 14

In the end, it became a case of “she said, he said.”

This essentially sums up the re-trial of 84-year-old retired British doctor Brian Drew Apthorp, who is charged with three counts of indecent assault against his former Filipina domestic helper, referred to as “X” during the court hearings.

The prosecution ended up relying merely on the testimony of X in trying to prove its case against Apthorp, after the video clips, photographs and the helper’s notebook which the police had collected as part of the evidence, were not admitted in the re-trial.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Through about three days of testimony, X related the events which formed the bases for the three separate acts of indecent assaults that the octogenarian doctor had allegedly committed towards her, including fondling her during a supposed medical check-up, and forcing her to masturbate him during massage sessions.

In turn, the defense subjected her to intense cross-examination, through which the helper was pictured as a scheming woman who only wanted money from the frail and elderly employer. In his closing statement, the defense lawyer said X’s testimony was riddled with “demonstrable lies.”

At the close of the trial on Friday, Eastern Court Magistrate Edward Wong said he would give his verdict in the case on Dec. 14, and extended Apthorp’s bail of $201,000 until then.

Pindutin para sa detalye

The High Court ordered the re-trial on April 29 this year, after setting aside Apthorp’s conviction by  Magistrate Daniel Tang in July last year. Tang sentenced the defendant to 30 months in jail after finding him guilty on two counts of indecent assault.

Judge Esther Toh ruled the conviction unsafe and unsatisfactory because of Tang’s refusal to allow solicitor Jonathan Midgley, who was hired belatedly by Apthorp to defend him, to cross-examine X.

At the start of the re-trial, the defense had tried to ask for a “permanent stay of proceedings” in the case against Apthorp, citing as one of the grounds the supposed deterioration in the defendant’s health and the inadequacy of the evidence against him.

PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE

Wong rejected the application, but asked the prosecution to amend the second charge, saying it was too broad in scope.

Apthorp originally faced two counts of indecent assault, one that allegedly happened on Sept. 11, 2018 while the second charged covered several occasions between November 2018 and April 2019.

The defense objected to the second charge, saying it lacked particulars and that the agreed facts did not mention that the assaults happened on multiple occasions during the period indicated.

Press for details

The prosecution agreed to amend the second charge, and ended up splitting it into two charges. The second charge pertained to an incident that allegedly happened between November and December 2018, and the third, in April 2019.

All of the alleged incidents happened inside Apthorp’s house at 35B, Shouson Hill Road.

The re-trial commenced after Apthorp pleaded not guilty to all charges.

X was the only witness called for the prosecution. She said that a few days after she began working for Apthorp, the elderly man told her to go to his room for a medical examination. But the employer ended up fondling her breasts before inserting something hard into her private parts.

BASAHIN ANG DETALYE

X said she was too shocked to resist, but kept her eyes closed during the entire proceeding. Later, she complained to a fellow Filipina helper, Janice Villanueva, who was then about to leave for Canada after working for Apthorp for several years. The other helper reportedly assured her that it was just a regular check-up that the doctor conducts on his household staff.

The two other incidents pertained to massage sessions with Apthorp, during which X said he would always be asked by the employer to “empty his balls,” or for her to masturbate him. X said she did as she was told even if it disgusted her because she was scared of losing her job.

During cross-examination, the defense lawyer asked X about certain money matters, including a loan she supposedly asked the doctor for so she could have dental surgery done in the Philippines.

X said she went home that time not because of any dental work, but because of Immigration’s policy for foreign domestic workers to “exit” Hong Kong within a year of moving to a new employer.

Defense also brought up the $163,000 compensation claim that X had filed against Apthorp with the Equal Opportunities Commission, and her subsequent civil action for more than $1 million in damages, suggesting she was only after his money.

X denied all the counter-accusations.

She also denied Apthorp had fired her because she stopped going to his house while he was away on holiday. X said she was in touch with the employer regularly via email and that he had only wanted to make it appear that she had disappeared so he could pretend to have fired her.

In a separate case for a judicial review, a High Court judge ruled in favor of X’s application to challenge the government’s failure to properly investigate her more serious allegations of trafficking and forced labor against Apthorp.

Judge Russell Coleman agreed with X, and said the authorities had prematurely curtailed their investigation into her case. He ordered for an investigation into her case to be reopened.

However, the Department of Justice merely said it would study the judgment and “consider the way forward.”

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