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A 22-year-old man who admitted having consensual underage sex intercourse with his teenage girlfriend seven years ago was granted a conditional discharge and ordered to be bound over for HK$2,000 for two years by the High Court on Monday.
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The court heard that the offenses occurred between 2018 and 2019 when both the defendant and his then-girlfriend, X, were in a four-year romantic relationship that started when they were 13.
The defendant, identified as A, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 years of age and one count of buggery with a girl under the age of 21.
In sentencing, Judge Susana Maria D’ Almada Remedios described the case as a gradual teenage romance between childhood sweethearts who had known each other since age 5, noting that it involved no elements of sexual exploitation.
The court heard that X had initially consented to both encounters and took a leading role, such as inviting A to her home. While X in one circumstance asked A to stop the sexual intercourse due to pain, A complied after she repeated her request.
X cut contact with A in 2020 and later sought treatment for depression. After studying in the United Kingdom and gaining a deeper understanding of sexual offenses, she reported the case to the police upon returning to Hong Kong in August 2022.
Remedios noted that the defendant, who graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2025, has faced immense anxiety and disruption to his career planning since his arrest two years after the breakup. Ruling that it would be unfair to place the entire moral blameworthiness on the defendant, the judge exercised judicial discretion to grant the conditional discharge, allowing him to move forward with his life.
