A 16-year-old student with a foot fetish was sent to a rehabilitation centre yesterday after he preyed on two women just weeks after being placed on probation for 10 previous indecency offences.
The Form Four student pleaded guilty in Tuen Mun Court to two charges of indecent assault and one of loitering - including an incident in which he banged on a woman's door and asked for her shoes.
'I really don't understand what went through your mind at that moment,' Magistrate Kwok Wai-kin said, admonishing the teenager who told a court in June he found feet to be erotic after visiting pornographic websites.
The court heard the student was arrested two days before he was due to appear in court for a review of his probation on the earlier offences.
He was sentenced to a centre for rehabilitation and training where his release would depend on his progress, and he will be monitored after being set free.
The student admitted he followed a 37-year-old woman from a lift in a Tin Shui Wai housing estate, pretending to look for her neighbour. He grabbed her from behind, squatted down and lifted up her skirt as she was about to open a door.
He fled when she shouted at him but returned minutes later, banging on her door and pleading with her not to call the police. She shut the door but shortly afterwards he banged again, asking for the shoes she had worn.
On another occasion he groped a 19-year-old woman from behind as she walked home at night in Tin Shui Wai, embracing her neck and kissing her left cheek.
Medical reports said the student had 'turned his abnormal sexual interests into illegal acts, which have escalated'.
'It is no longer a one-off affair. You admitted following the victims for 10 to 15 minutes before the assaults,' the magistrate said.
The magistrate passed the new order, plus recommendations for frequent sessions with counsellors, because the student's age limited his sentencing options. But he warned the student to stay out of trouble.
'I warn you not to reoffend. If you fail to learn from the training and become a danger to the public, you should expect to be kept [locked up] for a long time.'
He revoked the 18-month probation order from the previous case, in which the student pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting six teenagers and stealing four shoes between March and May at housing estates and a shopping mall in Tin Shui Wai.
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