Police arrest Lee Ming Ho for rape
18 May – Police have arrested Hong Kong musician Lee Ming Ho in relation to a rape case of a TVB actress.
According to Jayne Stars, the 32-year-old Lee was picked up by the Hong Kong Police Department for questioning after a 23-year-old TVB actress had lodged a report that she was sexually violated at the musician's studio on 14 May.
It was reported that the actress, a longtime friend of Lee, had visited him at his VI-MAZ Music Studio with a bottle of wine and they both got drunk while chatting on a sofa at the studio. The actress then fell into a drunken stupor.
Upon waking up, the actress found that she had been raped and quickly left the scene. She confided the incident to her family, who then took her to lodge the police report and was examined for samples since she had not bathed after the incident.
Lee, who founded his studio in 2004 and had worked with artists such as Karen Mok, Eason Chan, William So and the Grasshoppers, acknowledged that he had 'assisting' in the police investigation, but maintained that he was innocent.
"I do not know why the police came to me. Rape is a serious allegation! If it did occur, the police will lodge a case against me. Why would they release me?" he said.
Lee was released on bail after the arrest and would let his lawyers handle the case from here on.
Meanwhile, local media had suppressed the name of the alleged rape victim and left only a few clues as to her identity. The victim was a winner of a beauty pageant, had an expressed interest in pursuing a music career and appeared in several cameo roles for TVB.
This has rattled Netizens to conduct a witch-hunt to unravel the identity of the 23-year-old victim. Among the suspected names are Mandy Wong and Cilla Lok, along with other former beauty winners and models. All of them have denied being the victim.
