Family jailed for obstructing rape trial testimony

The High Court on Monday sent four members of the same family to prison after they obstructed a teenage relative from testifying in a rape trial.

A girl in the family accused her father of raping her when she was 13 years old. But before she could testify against him in court in 2018, her mother took her away to Shenzhen.

When the pair finally returned and the case went to trial in 2019, the girl changed her testimony and denied any sexual assault had taken place. The father was subsequently acquitted.

After a new trial, the girl’s mother and father were last week found guilty of perverting the course of justice and the father, a grandmother and an uncle were convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard that while the father was being held in custody, he had told the family to prevent his daughter from testifying. He told the mother to take her to the mainland and not to return until he had been released.

The grandmother and uncle, meanwhile, urged the girl to “play dumb” during the original trial and to say that she couldn’t remember anything.

Judge Alex Lee said deterrent punishments were needed as the family had totally disregarded the law and while they were supposed to be protecting the teenager, they did the exact opposite.

He jailed the father for 6.5 years, saying it was extremely selfish of him to enlist his family to try to get him off the hook.

The mother, who had taken the girl to report the alleged rape, was jailed for three years and nine months, and the grandmother and uncle for four years and nine months each.