'Gang rape victim' blasts police chief's comments

Police Commissioner Chris Tang announced at a district council meeting this week that the force is looking into whether the alleged rape victim misled officers. File photo: RTHK

A woman who alleges she was gang-raped by police officers in Tsuen Wan Police Station has accused the force's chief, Chris Tang, of trying to publicly discredit her and undermine her complaint.



During a district council meeting on Thursday, Tang said the case is being handled “in the direction of misleading police officers or giving a false statement”.



The alleged victim, known only as Ms X due to anonymity laws, on Saturday condemned the commissioner's remarks in a statement posted on her lawyer's social media account.



"Ms X considers that any objective observer would be driven to conclude that these public comments on her criminal complaint by the Commissioner of Police are an outrageous further attempt to publicly discredit her, publicly undermine her complaint and diminish any prospect of a successful prosecution," the statement said.



"Ms X further believes that the actions of the police during the course of this supposedly confidential investigation evidences the lack of impartiality of this investigation by the police and displays a total disregard for her privacy and dignity as a criminal complainant and victim of rape."



The statement said the police have never asked Ms X to clarify her account of the alleged gang rape last September, nor did they give her any update on the progress of the investigation.



The lawyers said their client had provided a DNA sample from the aborted foetus after she underwent a termination, in the hope of identifying at least one of her “assailants”, but she has not been told whether police have received any test report from the government laboratory.



"Throughout the investigation, Ms X has repeatedly asked police for updates on the progress of the investigation. The investigating team has refused to provide these despite the provision of such updates being guaranteed under the Hong Kong Police Victim’s Charter," the lawyers said.



They had already accused the force of trying to discredit Ms X back in November – a month after she made her report of the alleged attack to the police – saying officers were leaking "supposed details" of the case.