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| The indecent assaults happened inside a flat in Caribbean Coast in Tung Chung |
A Filipino electronic engineer let out a sob as a High Court judge ordered him behind bars ahead of his sentencing for three counts of indecent assault on a young girl which started when she was just seven years old.
Joel M. Tiquia, 51, had been out on bail for $50,000 cash and $50,000 surety before he appeared in
court this morning.
Justice Andrew
Chan ordered that the case file on Tiquia’s previous convictions in 2016 for two
counts of indecent assault on a woman be submitted in court ahead of the
sentencing on May 7.
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| TAWAG NA! |
Tiquia was
originally charged with four counts of indecent assault on the young girl who lived in his Tung Chung neighborhood, and admitted to three of them. He was not asked
to plead to the fourth charge, which was then left on file.
The first charge
admitted by Tiquia happened in April 2017 inside a flat in Caribbean Coast in
Tung Chung, when the victim was just seven years old. This was only a year
after his two prior convictions.
Tiquia, who also
resides in Tung Chung, again committed sexual assault on the girl in May 2018
when the girl was eight years old.
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| PINDUTIN DITO |
The case put on
file allegedly happened two years later, when the victim was 10 years old.
The final
offense was committed by Tiquia on Oct. 6, 2021, when the girl was 11.
Tiquia first
appeared in court a year after the last sexual attack occurred, but admitted
his guilt only nearly two years later.
According to the
defence lawyer, Tiquia is married with two sons, and used to work as an
electronic engineer earning $25,000 a month.
In mitigation,
his lawyer said the defendant’s eldest son was in court to support him, while
his wife and younger son, as well as some colleagues, submitted letters asking
the court for a lenient sentence.
The lawyer said
the offences committed by Tiquia were serious, but were “not the most serious.”
There was no
evidence of a psychological imbalance in the defendant, and he was not a
pedophile, according to the lawyer.
Further, he said
there was just one victim in the case, and that the defendant regretted what he
did and vowed never to reoffend.
As for his
previous convictions in 2016, the lawyer said the cases were not similar as the
victim in the cases was an adult lady and the offences involved Tiquia rubbing
his shoulder on the sensitive upper body part of the woman.
He suggested a
starting point for the sentence of between four and five years.
But according to Section 122 (1) of Crimes Ordinance of Hong Kong, a crime of indecent
assault could fetch up to 10 years in prison.
Under the same
law, a person under the age of 16 is considered incapable of giving
consent to such an act.
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