A 31-year-old beautician has been jailed for four years after being convicted in the District Court of nine offences involving extortion and intimate images.
The convictions comprised two counts of extortion, four counts of publishing intimate images without consent and three counts of threatening to publish them. The prosecution said the case followed an affair with a married man that ended in 2023. It said the defendant then made escalating demands, beginning with HK$10,000 and later reaching HK$500,000, while sending intimate images of the man to his wife and other contacts.
The wife told the court that she received repeated messages and images over about a month, including photographs of the couple’s children. The judge’s summary of trauma reports said she suffered an emotional breakdown, a tendency towards self-harm and depression. Her work was affected for two months, and she later underwent liposuction after becoming distressed by comments about her appearance.
The husband’s trauma report recorded anxiety about the images being circulated, shame, guilt, work problems and fear of social contact. The judge said the conduct seriously affected the couple’s reputation, work, social lives and marriage, and that a deterrent sentence was required. Individual sentencing starting points ranged from 18 months to three years and three months before the court imposed the aggregate four-year term.