Taoist monk molested mother and her 15-year-old daughter to ‘purge them of evil spirits’, Hong Kong court hears

A self-proclaimed Taoist monk in Hong Kong molested a mother and her daughter to exorcise evil spirits, a court was told on Friday.

Yuen Ming-kuen, 57, told the women he had special healing powers to negotiate with spirits and purge them through religious rituals that included touching their breasts and genitals.

Security guard Yuen also struck the mother’s head repeatedly during what he called a “fight with evil spirits possessing the woman”, the District Court heard.

The man claimed he had learned such methods from an arhat – a person who has reached nirvana – in his dreams.

But deputy district judge Terence Wai found these to be “ridiculous stories” and convicted Yuen of six counts of indecent assault and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

“The defendant was a dishonest man,” Wai said. “His acts were all part of a scam.”

Yuen kept his eyes closed as Wai recounted how he had used various excuses to assault the mother on six occasions in seven months before groping her daughter, 15, while she slept on March 29, 2017 to “check whether she had been infected by poison” found in corpses.

Neither women could be identified for legal reasons.

The court heard Yuen was first introduced to the mother on August 26, 2016 when her friends arranged for a Taoist monk to visit her flat because she had complained about it being haunted.

Yuen said he sensed evil spirits in the house and sealed the premises before groping the woman, claiming her breasts and vagina were harbouring spirits and harmful beads produced by the spirits raping her.

Two similar treatments were performed on September 3 and 23, during which Yuen reported seeing the ghost of an unborn child troubling the woman since she had an abortion.

On all three occasions, Yuen said he had obtained consent to touch the woman during his HK$7,500 therapy.

The victim paid HK$2,500 in total to Yuen, as she did not have enough money.

But he also groped the woman’s breasts without her consent on other occasions because he claimed he did not want the spirits to hear his plan and she was in too much pain for him to delay treatment.

Dr Lee Yiu-fai, an abbot of Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple summoned by the prosecution, said Taoist rituals would never involve sex or physical contact, and explained Buddhist practices were even stricter.

The judge also observed on Friday the mother’s health had worsened since Yuen began his treatment and concluded she had only “reluctantly acquiesced” to the physical touching because she felt helpless.

He acquitted Yuen of one other count of indecent assault since the mother had failed to give consistent details on what happened.

In mitigation, defence counsel Paul Wu argued neither victim had mentioned any psychological trauma as a result of his client’s assault and urged the judge not to call for impact assessment.

The judge disagreed.

Wai also found it necessary to assess Yuen’s psychological condition, considering he had openly assaulted the women while others were in the room.

Further mitigation, pending these assessments, will be heard on June 13 before Yuen is sentenced on the following day.

Indecent assault is punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment.

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