Edison Chen, Hong Kong Celebrity Sex Scandal Star, Testify In Court
Edison Chen, the Chinese-Canadian pop star embroiled in a sex scandal after thousands of lurid photos were released last year, appeared in British Columbia Supreme Court Monday. The photos show Chen in bed separately with eight of Hong Kong best-known actresses and singers. It has badly damaged the careers of both Chen and the women. He testified against Ho Chun Sze, the man accused of accessing Chen's laptop and the photos of him in bed with Hong Kong celebrities, according to The Guardian, which describes the scandal.
Dozens of new pictures, many highly explicit, were uploaded each day, gradually identifying more women. Eight of the territory's best-known singers and actors appear in the images.
"It was more of an attack, a well-planned attack in the way these images were released," Chen said.
Chen claimed Sze stole the pictures off his computer when he took it in for repairs, the Guardian also reported.
Chen was forced to identify several of the women in the photographs, many of whose careers were ruined when the photos were released, reported the Hong Kong Standard.
Chen stressed most of the photos were taken by him between 2001 and 2006 and were for his own possession. He admitted one of the women took about 40 photos and burned them onto a disc and gave it to him.
"This was never meant for anyone else to see," Chen said, adding that "everything was consensual."
The former singer-actor also told the Canadian courts that he believed he deleted the photos from his computer and suspected foul play on the part of the Sze and the computer store in recovering the deleted images from the hard drive of his laptop,reported the Globe and Mail.
He believed he had erased the files by putting them into the trash, before the machine was taken to the repair shop. "I did not know about encrypted data or securing the trash. In my opinion, when you deleted a file and put it in the trash bin, it was deleted," he said, adding that he later found out that files deleted from the trash could be recovered in some cases.
"They invaded my privacy and stole my things in a very direct way," Mr. Chen told the court.
Mr. Sze's trial will begin in Hong Kong on April 6. An international treaty between Canada and Hong Kong allows the two countries to provide legal assistance in criminal matters, according to the Globe and Mail.
In the court today, Chen once refused to identify the women, saying they have suffered enough. But the judge insisted that he must answer the question.
This is the first time he admits to the identity of the women. Before that, only Gillian Chung has admitted publicly that one of the women in the photos was her.
Chen described the scandal as “torture”. He said the release of the photos was a “well-planned attack” on him and the women because they were uploaded to the net bit by bit and gradually, from smaller to larger quantities.
Chen said the photos were taken with the consent of two adults. He had not shown them to any third party and said he’d never meant to share the photos anyone else except the women he took the pictures with.
More than 50 reporters from Hong Kong and local Canadian media were at the court today covering the story.
Canto-pop star in court over sex photos
Vancouver, Canada (AFP) — The Hong Kong-Canadian pop star who took photoswhile having sex with a string of female celebrities told a court Monday he was shocked when the images were plastered across the Internet.
Edison Chen, one of Asia’s biggest entertainment stars, gave evidence in the case of Sze Ho-Chun, a computer technician charged in Hong Kong with illegally posting the explicit photos online.
The photos became an Internet sensation when they were posted last February, forcing Chen, 28, into early retirement and sending him fleeing to his childhood home of Canada.
The pictures showed Chen in compromising positions with various celebrities, including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan.
Chen told the unusual hearing in Vancouver that the photos were his, but that they had been stored on a personal laptop computer that had gone missing last year.
He told the court he believed the release of the photos was due to “some foul play” by workers at a computer store he used in Hong Kong.
“I’m quite a private person,” said Chen. “This was never meant for anyone else to see.”
The hearing was scheduled for a week but wrapped up in just a day.
A crowd of two dozen photographers, many from Asian tabloids, mobbed Chen as he left the court building surrounded by burly private security guards.
Hong Kong’s Department of Justice flew a legal team, including Hong Kong’s chief magistrate, to Vancouver after Chen had refused to return to the southern Chinese city to give evidence.
The decision to fly over the legal team and the intensity of the original police investigation have been criticized in Hong Kong, with some claiming the case has garnered special attention because of Chen’s celebrity status.
The Vancouver native of Portuguese-Chinese parents was discovered a decade ago by a talent agent in a Hong Kong club and became an icon in the music, film and fashion industries in Asia.
Chen, whose full name is also known as Edison Chen Koon-hei, recorded 16 albums under the EEG (Emperor Entertainment Group) label, of which the latest is 2007’s “Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself.”
Before his retirement Chen had a cameo role in the 2008 Batman movie “The Dark Knight,” and a voice-over in the Cantonese version of the animated children’s movie “Shrek.”
But his career was destroyed by the appearance of hundreds of the sex photos, which caused a storm in celebrity-obsessed but culturally conservative Hong Kong.
Chen’s cause was not helped by the fact he was reportedly dating Vincy Yeung, the niece of the head of EEG, effectively Chen’s boss at the time.
He soon announced his retirement and said he would be focusing on charity work.
The scandal spread across Asia, where Hong Kong stars are hugely popular, with police in Taiwan and China arresting around a dozen people for allegedly possessing and distributing the photographs.
Despite his retirement, Chen’s fame has not faded.
He was the most-searched personality late last year in Asia, according to Google, and Asian media regularly report ongoing boycotts of restaurants and stores associated with his name.
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Edison Koon-Hei Chen (born October 7, 1980 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian-born, Hong Kong-based movie actor, rapper, singer and pop icon of Chinese-Portuguese ethnicity. Chen is also the founder of CLOT Inc., and the CEO of Clot Media Division Limited. He is fluent in English, Cantonese, Mandarin and speaks Japanese, which allows him to be a part of multiple entertainment industries around the world. On 21 February 2008 he publicly announced that he intended to step away indefinitely from the Hong Kong entertainment industry due to a sex photo scandal, devoting his time instead to public causes.
Randomness
Headache
OCBC Cycle
FORMOTION TIGHTS ! !!
BREAK FREE
boring sunday
Surprise
Valentine's Day
The idea is that those who did not give or receive gifts on Valentine's Day or White Day can get together and eat Jjajangmyeon (짜장면), white Korean noodles with black bean sauce (hence the name), to commiserate their singledom.
P/S White day is another 2 words for Valentine's Day.
Tried very hard to find a blue rose, tell me how hard is it to find nicely bloom single stalk blue rose? It is not hard, but expensive. After school i went to causeway to find blur rose, they have nicely bloom one but booked already and are in bouquet. A bouquet of jus a few stalks is very ex already oh. Then i turn to single stalk small blue rose, leaves are dying and not going to bloom. So i wen to CCK to find. Call up some friends to check places other places and the most interesting place i actually try to find is HOSPITAL. surprisingly they sold out of blue rose too.. KNS. and i found 2 stalk of blue rose, dunno if by later will it bloom nicely not. its by the roadside a shabby flower shop. 1 stalk is $1.50. BUT, i added simple plastic wrapping and a ribbon, it shot up to$6 per stalk. So i jus buy lor. T.T
HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY PEOPLE!
friends in chinese dance look here ouh, i may return to WSSS, but with a budget ;)
Friday The 13
If a problem can be solved, no need to worry about it. If a problem cannot be solved, what is the use of worrying?
AUTO CAD DOWN ! !! ! !!
moodless
this picture shows a timetable of the week for a pratical lab. and this teacher book so many slots that my classmates and i couldn't book to practice our stuffs. so i wrote a comment.. i kno i am evil!! (taken last week)
Transformer 2 Trailer
SUAY! ! ! To The Max
Every successful person has a painful story. every painful story has a successful ending. Accept the pain and get ready for the success.
STRESS
