HK sex workers drug and rob foreign businessmen

SOME foreigners looking for sex in the nightlife district of Wan Chai in Hong Kong have ended up with more than they bargained for.


A foreigner with a woman in the district of Wan Chai in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong police said yesterday that 44 men - mostly foreign businessmen - have reported being drugged and robbed by sex workers in the area over the last three years.

This revelation comes on the heels of an investigation into the possible poisoning deaths of two Americans at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Wan Chai over a week ago.

Reports said the two men, identified as Mr Paul Cherry, 45, and Mr Richard Victor, 51, had been to a nightclub before returning to their room with two women.

The men's slumped bodies were discovered the next day by cleaning staff.

The Standard newspaper reported that a mixture of cocaine and heroin was found in their blood, but police have refused to comment, saying toxicology tests were continuing.

A Filipino woman arrested shortly after the bodies were found has been released, but will appear in court on charges of violating her visa by moonlighting as a prostitute, a police spokesman said.

In most drug-and-rob cases, the victims couldn't remember much of their encounter and only made reports days or weeks after the event when they found unexplained withdrawals from their accounts.

Other victims discovered cash and other valuables missing when they awoke in their hotel room, said a police source.

In one of the most high-profile cases, a senior Finnish policeman, Mr Kari Juhani Koivuniemi, died of a heart attack in a luxury hotel after being given the drug Rohypnol in 2003.

A woman thought to have been a mainland Chinese prostitute was suspected of giving him the drug, but she was never found.

Wan Chai has undergone a makeover in recent years to shake off its seedy reputation, but remains a popular place for foreigners.

AP