Father jailed for raping daughter says he thought she was his wife

The High Court in Hong Kong heard the daughter told a psychologist assessing her that she bore no grudge against her father and had forgiven him. Photo / File

A father who drunkenly raped his 15-year-old daughter thinking she was his wife was jailed in Hong Kong on Monday.

The High Court heard that following the incident, the daughter told a psychologist assessing her that she bore no grudge against her father and had forgiven him.

Instead, the girl directed "anger and displeasure" against the social worker who reported the case without her consent. She accused the social worker of putting her through the guilt of splitting her family of four, which also included her older brother, according to an impact report read in court.

"This is an unusual case with peculiar facts," deputy High Court judge Amanda Woodcock said, before jailing the father - known as Y. C. K, a pseudonym to avoid the identification of his daughter - for two and a half years.

The court heard the construction worker was born in mainland China and moved to Hong Kong in the late 1970s. He married his wife in mainland China and they were reunited in Hong Kong in 2000.

On the night of March 22 last year, the defendant returned home "stinking of alcohol" before crawling into his daughter's bed, the girl - referred to as X - had earlier told the court.

X told police during investigation she sensed her father had mistaken her for her mother and tried to tell him but was unable to stop the drunken man.

In his own admissions, the father told police he had sex with his daughter thinking it was his wife. He stopped immediately after realising he had mixed up the two.

Y. C. K had earlier been offered the chance to plead guilty to a charge of incest, which carries a lesser maximum sentence of 10 years, so prosecutors would not pursue a rape charge that could result in a life sentence.

Woodcock refused to accept this plea, saying Y. C. K would have a good defence in an incest trial if he relied on having been intoxicated.

However, the father later insisted he would plead guilty to any charge to avoid putting his daughter and wife through any further ordeal. Y. C. K, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of rape on Monday.

Woodcock, reducing the man's five-year sentence by almost half, acknowledged the father's remorse by pleading guilty to spare his daughter and wife from taking the witness box. She also accepted the daughter's view was genuine and noted the father's intoxication was self-induced.