Domestic worker accusing ex-employer of rape initiated sex with him before, defence tells Hong Kong court
Hong Kong Free Press
A domestic worker who accused her ex-employer of raping her two years ago had initiated sex with him before the alleged incident, a lawyer representing the accused has said.
The trial of Swedish businessman Patrik Tobias Ekstrom, 36, continued at the High Court on Friday. He is accused of one count of rape and one count of non-consensual buggery over an alleged incident in October 2022 involving his then-domestic worker.
According to the prosecution, the alleged victim – known only as X – lived in Ekstrom’s house in Shek O, where she took care of Ekstrom, his wife and their three children. On the night of October 27, 2022, Ekstrom returned home and appeared to be drunk. He made sexual advances at X and dragged her upstairs to the bedroom, where he forced her to have sex, the prosecution alleged.
On Thursday, the defence continued cross-examining X, who spoke via video link from another room in the building. She testified in her native Nepalese, with her statements translated to English by an interpreter.
Representing Ekstrom, defence counsel Simon So reiterated an earlier argument that X was lying. He stated the defence’s case, saying that X had initiated sex with Ekstrom before the night of the alleged incident. X denied it and said it was a lie.
So said that in July 2022, about three months before the alleged rape, X knocked on Ekstrom’s door and found him naked in his bed watching erotic films. X asked whether he needed “any help,” to which Ekstrom “looked a bit shocked and said ‘yes, but don’t tell my wife,’” So said.
The defence counsel said she then masturbated for him and that they had oral sex. During oral sex, X suddenly asked him if he could help her with a loan. Ekstrom said “yes, yes, yes, just continue,” So said, adding that after the sex, he gave her HK$1,000.
One or two weeks later, X was said to have knocked on Ekstrom’s door again carrying lubricant with her. Ekstrom was again naked and watching erotic films. The two had oral and anal sex, So said.
“It’s a total lie,” X told the court. “How can it be possible?”
X again asked for help with a loan, and after the sex, Ekstrom paid her HK$3,000, the defence counsel added.
‘Totally, totally wrong’
Regarding the night of the incident, So disputed the prosecution’s case that Ekstrom had made threatening sexual advances at X and forced her to have sex. The defence counsel said that when Ekstrom came home, he went to see his uncle and then upstairs to the master bedroom.
The court had already heard that Ekstrom’s relationship with his wife had been rocky, and that she had left to her home country Japan with their three children earlier in the day.
When asked if she knew her then-employer was sad that night, X said yes. So then said X had gone to the master bedroom and tried to comfort him by saying things like ‘how can I help you’ and ‘you should not be alone’.”
X replied that this was “totally, totally wrong.”
So said later that night, when X was in her bedroom, Ekstrom knocked on her door and told her that “sorry, this ends today.” He told X that he would not have sex with her anymore, and to pack her things and leave tomorrow.
X told the court that this, too, was a lie.
The defence’s case came after So on Thursday accused X of telling a “pack of lies” and questioned why she did not physically resist or attack Ekstrom if she did not consent to the sex.
X earlier told the court that Ekstrom spoke loudly and emotionally when he returned home on the night of the alleged incident and asked for a “sexual relationship” with her. He threatened to kill her and said he also “wanted” her daughter, before dragging her upstairs to the master bedroom where he forced her to have vaginal and oral sex, X said.
No 999 call
On Friday, So asked why X did not call the city’s emergency number 999 after the alleged incident. He suggested that she could have done so following the sex, when Ekstrom told her to bring him some water and his phone.
“At that period of time, Mr Ekstrom was not physically holding your body at all, correct?” So asked, to which X agreed.
“If what you told the court was of any truth, you would have had [the] chance to call 999 already, correct?” he continued.
X said she did not do so because there was no network in her bedroom, and she was worried he might “follow” her.
So then suggested that she had “yet another chance” to call 999 after giving Ekstrom water and his phone and seeing that he was running a bath.
X replied that she was very scared and that she believed police would take some time to arrive. She added that the lock on her room door had malfunctioned. X also said she had switched off her phone by that time because she was afraid Ekstrom would “contact [her] and again torture [her].”
During the cross-examination, So raised doubts over X’s statements that beyond getting an advance on her salary to help pay off her loans, she had never asked for a loan from her employers.
When So suggested that she had requested a loan in early October 2022 of 468,500 Indian rupees, equivalent to around HK$44,422, X said her employers had offered the money and that she had never asked for it.
X said one day, while she was working, Ekstrom called her name and asked her the size of her loan, and said he would pay it off for him. She then gave him her daughter’s bank account number after he asked for it.
The witness added that Ekstrom never actually loaned the money.
So also said that medical examinations after the alleged incident found no identifiable external injuries on her body.
“Now I suggest to you if what you told this court was true about grabbing you, pushing [and] throwing you onto the bed… [if] any of those… happened, it would not be the case as shown like this,” So said.
Security guard testimony
After So finished his cross-examination and the prosecution completed its re-examination, a security guard working at Ekstrom’s residential complex on the night of the alleged incident took to the stand as a prosecution witness.
The security guard, surnamed Lai, confirmed with prosecutor Diane Crebbin that her main responsibilities included recording the information of vehicles and people entering and exiting the complex.
Crebbin showed Lai CCTV footage of Ekstrom returning home that October night, leaving in the small hours the next day, and X leaving in a taxi with her belongings at around 7 am.
Lai identified both Ekstrom and X from the footage. She added that when Ekstrom walked in, his face was red and he was not walking in a straight line, as if he were intoxicated.
Friday marked the fourth day of the trial, which is expected to last eight days. The trial will resume on Monday.
Under Hong Kong law, rape and non-consensual buggery are punishable by up to life imprisonment.
| 💡If you are suffering from sexual or domestic violence, regardless of your age or gender, contact the police, Harmony House (click for details) and/or the Social Welfare Department on 28948896. Dial 999 in emergencies. |
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