Hong Kong Magistrate Abu Bakar bin Wahab gave on Wednesday a male serial sex offender a three-month jail sentence for lifting the skirt of an airline cabin crew. The incident happened on April 21 at 2:45 p.m. when the 25-year-old victim was alone walking down the staircase to the Admiralty MTR station’s Tsuen Wan Line platform.
After the victim felt someone was lifting her skirt from behind, she checked who did it and shouted at the culprit who immediately fled, reported the South China Morning Post. She followed the man and sought help from a station supervisor who helped the victim arrest the man as he tried to run away.
An offense like that merits a six-month jail term, but the magistrate took into account 29-year-old Mak Chun-man’s guilty plea and his mental state. Mak initially insisted that he accidentally touched the stewardess’s skirt but later said he did not touch her dress at all.
It is not Mak’s first run-in with the law. He has a record of eight convictions since 2002, seven for similar offenses. According the medical reports, Mak has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and hypersexuality.
Although since 2005, he has been undergoing psychological and psychiatric therapy, the treatments were apparently not so effective until his drugs were changed.
Prior to his three-month sentence, Mak was jailed for six year by the High Court in January 2013 for robbery and indecent assault for stealing women’s underwear and stockings after which he assaulted the victim.
In April, the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women noted the 47.8 percent hike in sexual violence cases in Hong Kong over the past 10 years, which reflects that more victims are willing to report complaints committed by strangers, according to the South China Morning Post.