Hong Kong’s top judges have cast doubt on whether the government should be blamed for the lack of bespoke legislation penalising forced labour after a domestic helper failed to substantiate her complaint of sexual exploitation by her employer in two separate trials.
The Court of Final Appeal on Wednesday also suggested the Filipino worker’s legal challenge would be unable to compel the authorities to enact specific laws targeting slavery even if she won the present case.
She claimed the doctor had repeatedly molested her and asked her to perform a series of sexual acts against her will over an eight-month span between September 2018 and April 2019.
But the Court of First Instance’s ruling in 2022 was partially overturned by the Court of Appeal last year, with three judges of the appellate court finding insufficient basis to hold that the enactment of a bespoke offence was “the only effective solution” to what the helper described as a systemic failure.
A renewed investigation conducted pursuant to the lower court’s order reached the same conclusion that the helper was not a victim of forced labour.
The doctor, identified as Z, was initially jailed for 2½ years on two counts of indecent assault, before the decision was quashed on appeal and the defendant acquitted on all charges in the retrial. The worker also lost a subsequent civil claim against him.
