Religious authorities are often sought by people for help in many areas as they are seen as individuals who are wise and spiritual. People usually trust them with their judgement and follow their instructions; however, “religious teachers” have been taking advantage of this trust in many cases.
On Friday (3 May), a court was told that a Taoist monk in Hong Kong molested a mother and her daughter because he wanted to exorcise evil spirits from them, reported The Star.
Identified as Yuen Ming-Kuen, 57, the self-proclaimed monk told the women that he possessed special healing powers that enabled him to negotiate with spirits and purge them through religious rituals. Only thing is, this included fondling their breasts and genitals as part of the process.
Source: The Star
Yuen, apparently a security guard, also pounded the mother’s head over and over again in an attempt to “fight with evil spirits possessing the woman”. He claimed that such methods was learnt from an arhat – a person who has reached nirvana – in his dreams.
However, Yuen was convicted of six counts of indecent assault and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm as deputy district judge, Terence Wai, found his stories to be absolutely ridiculous.
“The defendant was a dishonest man,” Wai said. “His acts were all part of a scam.”
Source: Mariella Furrer
On six occasions, Yuen used all kinds of excuses to assault the mother within the span of seven months before he groped her 15-year-old daughter while she was sleeping to “check whether she had been infected by poison” found in corpses.
The monk was first introduced to the victim when the mother’s friends had arranged for a Taoist monk to visit her home on 26 August 2016 as she had complained about it being haunted.
Upon arrival at the flat, Yuen said he sensed evil spirits and proceeded to seal the premises before groping the woman. He claimed that her breasts and vagina were harbouring spirits and harmful beads that were produced by the spirits “raping” her.
On September 3 and 23, Yuen performed two similar treatments on her after he allegedly claimed that he saw the ghost of an unborn child disturbing the woman since she had an abortion.
For illustration purposes | Source: U Wire
According to Yuen, he had obtained consent to touch the woman on all three occasions, but he also groped her breasts without her consent on other occasions in order to prevent spirits from hearing his plan. He also claimed that the woman was in too much pain for him to delay the treatment any further.
Yuen’s therapy treatment costs HK$7,500 (RM3,900), but the victim was only able to pay HK$2,500 (RM1,300) as she did not have sufficient money.
Further mitigation, pending these assessments, will be heard on June 13 before Yuen is sentenced on the following day.
It looks like we can’t even trust religious authorities anymore. We hope this story will increase awareness about how severe this issue is and that people will be more careful when seeking for help from religious teachers.
Also read: Subang Woman Kept as Sex Slave for 2 Years by ‘Ustaz’ Who Used Black Magic on Her
