Female predators plead guilty to blackmailing teen into prostitution

A 16-year-old girl was blackmailed with her sex tapes after refusing to continue prostitution, citing sickness, District Court was told on Thursday. 

Three defendants Wong Fo-yan, Shek So-sze, and Chan Ying-pui, pleaded guilty to controlling a person for the purpose of prostitution in May 2020 and threatening her to give them HK$33,400. Two of them are pregnant and are released on bail as the case is adjourned to December 17 for mitigation. 

According to the prosecution, the 16-year-old referred to as X in court tried to borrow money from Wong in May 2020. Wong proposed that X become a "part-time girlfriend" who offers sex services and referred her to Shek and Chan. 

The latter two took sexy pictures of the teenager and helped her set up a Telegram account for soliciting clients. 

X would ask for HK$2,600 every time she had sex with a client, and Shek and Chan would arrange a vehicle to send her to the next client. X would get between HK$1,000 to HK$5,000 a day, while Wong got a commission of HK$200. 

In mid-May 2020, X refused to take any clients saying she felt unwell. She received threats from Shek and Chan and messages from an unknown telephone number demanding her to pay HK$30,000, or her pictures and sex videos with clients would be uploaded to the internet. 

The two threatened her a week later, saying the content would be uploaded if she did not comply by midnight. 

Feeling scared, X promised to continue prostitution. She reported to the police with the help of social workers later that day. 

Under police caution, Chan admitted she asked for X's address on social media. She said she had lent HK$4,000 to her before but could not explain where the remaining HK$26,000 came from.