Edison Chen in court over sex photo scandal

[adrotate banner=”1″]Edison Chen appeared in court in Canada for the trial of Ho Chun Sze, which is taking place in Hong Kong. This is all about the sex scandal incident known as SexyPhotosGate (and other names) where photos of him and many Hong Kong actresses and performers were released on the web in early 2008. He took the stand to declare that he didn’t release the photos and to defend the women who are the subjects of the pictures.

Did you catch Edison Chan’s three second appearance in The Dark Knight?

Straightstimes

A RELUCTANT Edison Chen was ordered by the Canadian judge to confirm the identities of some women in the pictures. They are actress Cecilia Pak-Chi Cheung, actor-singer Gillian Yan-Tung Chan, former actress Bobo Man-Yu Chan and model-actress Rachel Sze-Wing Ngan. The series of photographs showing Chen in bed with eight of the country’s best-known actresses and singers surfaced on the Internet in January 2008. Chen said that the computer was taken for repairs in the summer of 2006. He said he thought he had deleted the images from the computer.

‘That strongly led me to believe that there was some foul play in this computer store,’ he said.

Chen also testified that he noticed that a second laptop went missing when he was moving last year, but told the judge he did not disclose his password to anyone.

Then on Jan. 29, 2008, he said his friends started contacting him about the images circulating on the Internet.

‘This was a very huge shock to me,’ Chen told the court. A month later, a police inspector showed him a compact disk of photographs.

‘Of course, I had seen these pictures. I took these pictures. They were in my personal computer,’ he said.

edison-afp
edison chen bobo chan

‘A well-planned attack’
Edison Chen testifies in racy photos scandal

VANCOUVER (British Columbia) – THE Chinese-Canadian film star in a racy scandal over photos that showed him in bed with eight of China’s best-known actresses and singers testified on Monday against the person accused of accessing his private laptop, which held the images.
…….
Edison Chen, the Vancouver-born star who moved to China as a teenager, testified in a British Columbia courtroom for the trial of Ho Chun Sze, which is taking place in Hong Kong. Ho faces three counts of obtaining access to a computer with illegal intent. Chen refused to return to Hong Kong for the case but he agreed toa deposition in Canada. Hong Kong Chief Magistrate Tong Man flew to Vancouver to hear the evidence.

Canadian Department of Justice lawyer Kerry Swift said the testimony will become part of the case in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong judiciary is allowed to take testimony under a mutual legal assistance treaty and Chen’s testimony will be presented in the Hong Kong case as a deposition.

‘I’m quite a private person. I enjoy my privacy. I need my privacy,’ said Chen, star of a popular series of Hong Kong action films. ‘This was never meant for anyone else to see.’
…..

Chen told the judges he would not answer questions about the women. ‘I am determined to protect their innocence,’ he said.

‘They have suffered enough.’ — AP

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Googlenews

Chen said he didn’t disclose his password to anyone and in fact had erased all the images from his computer before it was serviced in the summer of 2006.

“At the time I didn’t know there was such a thing as encryptable data or securing your trash or doing any of that. So in my opinion, when I deleted the file and put it in the trash bin it was deleted,” he told the court.

It was only after the photos and the scandal spread that he said he found out there were many ways to recover previously deleted files.

Chen became argumentative under cross-examination from defence lawyer Kelvin Lai.

He only grudgingly confirmed the names of four of the women.

Chen said everything in the photos between himself and the women was consensual.

“There was nothing forced,” he said.

And he adamantly rejected a suggestion from Lai that he’d moved the pictures to devices other than his computer.

“There’s no way I would make these photos mobile like that.”

Chen told the trial earlier that he went on the Internet to see the photos shortly after his friends started contacting him about the Internet pictures.

“It was more of an attack – a well-planned attack. In the way the images were released. Meaning they were in spurts, like two or 20. The next day it would be 80 and then another day it would be 100,” he testified.

Gillian Chung
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Meanwhile, Gillian has agreed to appear in an interview about the scandal..

Gillian Chung to share impact of sex photo scandal on talk show

Gillian Chung, whose career was badly affected by the outburst of sex photo scandal involving Edison Chen last year, will be resuming work next month by starting on movie and commercial shoots. Chung may also be answering a talk show invite where she will reveal her life and emotions after the scandal in the past year.

Her first strike back into showbiz will be James Yuen’s new movie, where the role as a third party in a relationship is said to be “made-to-measure” for her. Her partner in girl group, Twins, Charlene Choi will cast as the “official girlfriend” in the love triangle. According to Hong Kong media reports, CEO of Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG), Albert Yeung, has invited Andy Lau, who has a healthy image, to “shield” Chung in a successful return, by casting together in several movies.

Chung is now also an East Asia endorsee for a particular jeans brand and has secretly started on the commercial shoots. She will begin the promotional events in Hong Kong.

Other than these, Chung will be taking on an interview by CEO of TVB, Stephen Chan, on his popular talk show “Be My Guest” where she will talk about how the sex scandal has affected her. Chung and EEG did not state what questions should be avoided on the show but requested for the filming to be closed to media. With regards to this, Chan said, “Nothing has been confirmed as yet.”

Carina Lau speaks about her rape incident

No mention in the article of rumors about how Albert Yeung is suspected of being behind this, or even mention of rape at all. It looks like Carina Lau is claiming she wasn’t raped now, just kidnapped, stripped, and photographed. Which is odd, because supposed videos of the rape have surfaced on the internet. I am not going to watch to see if that’s her. Someone else can do that job. She claims to not hold a grudge against the men, but no mention on if she holds a grudge against the masterminds. This article had a lot of misspellings, so I corrected a few.
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Hong Kong Sex Scandal – Edison Chen, cameras, and many Hong Kong leading ladies!

The biggest news out of Hong Kong this past week is Edison Chen and his fantastic porn collection. It seems that Edison Chen likes to take photos of the women he’s banging, and as they are mostly high profile Hong Kong actresses, singers, and performers, that makes him have one heck of a private collection. Now, Edison Chen took his computer in to get repaired on day, and lo and behold suddenly hundreds of the photos were copies and are now popping up on the internet. Major starlets in a country where most serious performers don’t get naked. We’re talking potentially ruined careers, ruined relationships, and a major drama bomb of Hiroshima proportions mushroom clouding over the entire Hong Kong entertainment industry. And that means it is a whole lot of fun to see the drama unfolding!

Originally the photos were declared fakes. This was when I first heard of them, and thought it was just some non-issue where some celeb porn faker got in trouble in China. Then people got arrested, and more people got arrested. This got my interest up again, because why are so many people being arrested for fake porn? But it turns out the photos aren’t fake, and people getting arrested had real photos on their hard drive. The Chinese police declared they got everyone, then suddenly a poster named Kira put up more photos of Gillian! The police look like idiots, and Kira declares he’s not afraid of them because he’s not even in Hong Kong. So it looks like we’ll be getting more porn soon. Props to Kira, and Ha-HAH to the HK Police. If the police are so concerned with pornography, why aren’t they going after Edison himself? Obviously this is just a bunch of hypocritical bull that will end up with a bunch of random people thrown in jail while Edison gets his current girlfriend to suck him off some more making more photos. Such is the state of China today.
edison and gillian
Who are the actresses? Currently, Twins performer Gillian Chung is the biggest name on there, and has a stunning 53 photos out so far (with promises of a 32 minute video to come by releaser Kira) Gillian Chung’s squeaky-clean image is in jeopardy and there has been no real response from her camp. There are rumors of an attempted suicide, but they are just rumors and her manager has been stated that she has the flu right now. Maybe it’s the same thing as the “exhaustion” Hollywood celebs get all the time. Gillian can be seen in Protoge de la Rose Noire on TarsTarkas.NET. She was previously the victim of a photo scandal where someone took secret camera shots of her changing in a dressing room. Here, both her and Edison enjoy gobbling down on each other’s privates.

Cecilia Cheung is an actress/singer who is married to Nicholas Tse and recently had a child with him (she is seen on TarsTarkas.NET in The Promise. The photos with her were taken before all that. And it’s nice to know if you ever date her you need a weedwacker! I’m just saying. What is also weird is she looks drunk/drugged out of her gourd on many of the pictures, so possibly Edison Chen might get in trouble over that (but not if he keeps hiding in Canada)

The other big on that has photos out is Bobo Chan, who is some sort of TV presenter I’ve barely heard of. Bobo Chan was to get married soon, but not anymore! It’s probably not a good idea to marry someone named Bobo anyway.

There are also three unidentified women, who could be anyone at this point but there are some theories that they might be famous as well. The HK press is having a field day, and have also identified women who have been in relationships with Chen as well that may have photos released soon: Maggie Q (Mission Impossible 3, Naked Weapon) Elva Hsiao, Jolin Tsai, Niki Chow, Rain Li and Rosanne Wong Yuen-Kwun.

Quick photo count:
Gillian Chung (53 photos)
Bobo Chan (47 photos)
Cecilia Cheung (11 photos)

The three unidentified women are said to resemble:
Rachel Ngan (10 photos)
Mandy Chen Yu-Ju (41 photos)
Candice Chan Si-Wai (48 photos)

Some other photos said to resemble Japanese AV star Yu Chiu

Edison Chen has released an apology video. But if you look at the apology, it is not really an apology and just blames the computer guy, Edison takes no responsibility for being so careless with the revealing photos.

Still, if you don’t want your wang or cooze flashed all over the internet, don’t take naked pictures! Especially if you are a celebrity and this could hurt your career. I have a feeling this will be like the Hoang Thuy Linh scandal in Vietnam where actress Hoang Thuy Linh’s career was basically destroyed by a sex tape but the guy who made the tape will get away with no cultural repercussions. (four people who copied and uploaded the tape were arrested)
Cecilia Cheung and the underwear of doom!
The outrage isn’t the fact that people are having sex, it is the fact that the country can’t deal with it. Both China and India are crazily conservative on that aspect, despite the fact that they have like 3 billion people total and they didn’t all get here by storks. Still, I bet Edison’s career is back on track a lot quicker than any of the ladies.

I can tell you that 210 of the pictures are not at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MHH0AHSL

No they are not.

UPDATE: More photos of Gillian, Cecilia, and Bobo were released over the weekend, but the video of Gillian that was promised is a no-show. Photos of Vincy (Edison’s current girlfriend) also appeared of her in the shower. As she is 17, it is probably not a good idea to be showing the photos if you live in the USA (as age of consent in HK is 16, Edison won’t be arrested for that.) Also, word is a movie of Edison and Maggie Q appeared on a Chinese forum and it was shut down immediately. No word on if it is true as of this time.

Current theory on Kira is he is actually two or three people who attempted to blackmail Edison, Edison ticked them off, and now they are releasing sets of photos in an attempt to strongarm money off of him to stop. We’ll see what happens as the case continues to develop.

UPDATE 2: Gillian had a press conference today, but no new picture/movie releases. Rumors a rife that Kira is dead or caught by HK police. There is no conformation on any of this and it’s probably all rumors. If anything else shows up I’ll keep you posted. Gillian said

‘The scandal has been a great deal of hurt for me and the people around me. I admit I was naive and foolish in the past but I am already a grown-up now. I would like to thank my manager, company, family and friends for their support. I’m sorry for the trouble that it has caused to the society. I will work even harder and bravely face up to my life in future. I also thank the media for their concern and fans for their unwavering support.’

Yeah. Whatever. Young and naive multiple times with multiple costumes.
twins gillian and charlene

UPDATE 3: It looks like a Maggie Q picture has dropped as HK police arrest suspect number 9 in this case. This picture is rather disappointing:

maggie q and edison Chen

UPDATE 4: Kira remains silent, rumors of his death/being paid off abound, and more fake Maggie Q items show up online. Here is a posting translated that gives an example of the rumors going around:

Latest News!
Kira received 7 million HK dollars, disappears forever.
Beijing, Feb 12, 2008

The curtain has dropped: According to friends in HK, all the photos we have seen thus far were screen captures from videos. Gill’s photos were the first 10 minutes of the video, why? Because it was a used as a bargaining chip for extortion. Secondly, the audio of the video involves the reputation of many other big-name celebrities.
Gaoqing (who?) has over 1000 photos alone, and they were partially released last year. The first time Edison’s photo got released was the result of a hacker. This hacker has the most complete data. In order to protect himself from hackers and trojans, he transferred part of his data to his Apple computer. Apple does not run Windows, and most trojan are designed towards windows. The photos that were stolen during his computer repair is only a small part, and that is to the person we come to know as Kira. Photos of Vincy Yeung released on the 9th was unexpected from EEG Music. As we know, Edison’s photo all came in a set, and every women has a complete collection including the sexual parts. Usually they are released in few numbers first, then released in completion. So Vincy has a complete collection too.

Kira’s upload on the 9th, 4:45 is the last upload from Kira. He had an agreement with EEG in the amount of 700 hk dollars. Why did Gill’s manager said Gill would appear on the 11th? Because they have came to an agreement with Kira. After the money is received he needs 24 hours to confirm payment, also time for him to flee. As a matter of fact, the photos he has have already been uploaded to various free servers in the United States and Europe. If the discussion does not fall into place or if anything were to happen to him, he has set automatic emails that would email the links to his trustworthy friends, so they can spread the files. The reason Gill appears in front of the media on the 11th, and the fact that she had a big smile on her face, was because she knew the ordeal has came to a rest.

What’s Kira’s gain for showing us the photos? What does he get by destroying the life of these celebrities? He is not a warrior of morals, he’s just a regular Hong Kong citizen. Money is his ultimate choice. So everyone, stop calling for him, he has disappears forever. From tomorrow, there’s a lot more entertainers going to entertain us, and the danger is over. It is disappointed for us, but we all know the reason behind Kira’s action.

Gossip
The photos actually were stolen a long time ago. At first Kira talked to Edison, asking for 5 million HK dollars, but was not agreed upon. Edison was afraid he won’t be able to get back all the photos. He looked for Yeung Shou Cheng (EEG’s president) to him on the matter. Eventually, Kira released some information to the media, the magazines last year briefly mentioned this matter. However because of EEG’s influential power, magazines were afraid to show the photos nor pay Kira. Through the of magazine’s editor, one of the three members from Kira’s group was found. He knew whether he surrender the photos or not, he was doomed. He did not say anything while being question, and was eventually killed. The other two then fled to Southeast Asia, and again try to distort EEG and Edison. Befor the matter gains public attention Edison already knew, because both parties could not agree on a price, this time Kira was asking more than 10 millions. Edison took a private car to Shenzhen, then to Macau, took a private plane from his dad’s friend to the United States, and look for Vincy Yeung to his cause. Yeung Shou Cheng thought he could handle the matter, but eventually it was still not solved. Kira has decided to raise the price, and released the photos the night when Edison fled HK. Since that day Kira has been raising his price every day. It is believed Kira is in Thailand and Indonesia, and Kira is a group of two, and the data has been uploaded to the United States.
Do not think you have seen the best of all, why hasn’t C10’s and Maggie Q’s photo being released? Because Kira hasn’t gotten the right price, or because of safety reason, there isn’t a safe way for him to get paid.
Right now, both parties are fighting. The involvement of HK police has propelled this tension to its maximum. If Kira is sure he couldn’t get his money, there’s gonna be a monster upload, but not all. The reason is because there’s heavy involvement from other celebrities, including HK, China and Taiwan. If Kira wants to live longer than Edison, he would have to have something to protect himself from.

It is obvious what is going to happen to Edison, he’s going to die unnaturally.

Vincy’s 3 photos was a declaration of power to EEG, showing Kira has even better materials. This action forced EEG to come to the table, leaving the police behind. Bobo’s photos that were uploaded today were no longer of importance, since she was only a sacrifice in this whole matter. However, Vincy, C10 and Maggie Q, definitely will not be released today. Because this is Kira’s ultimate chip. And the most controversial material in Kira’s collection? I dare not say, because I don’t want to die before Edison does.

Trust my information and do not ask me where the information is from. Use your head to decide whether this is true.

UPDATE 5: Two photos of Rachel Ngan appeared on a message board (香港高登) today (Feb 14th). The post was quickly deleted and information turned over to the police. Rachel Ngan is an actress who is best known here for Gen-Y Cops. The poster posted under “牛腩3号” and it is not known if he is Kira (or one of the suspected several Kira people) It is clear that this matter isn’t as dead as it appeared to be recently.

UPDATE 6: And Edison has resigned from the HK entertainment industry. No new photos in a while, maybe Kira got paid off? Hopefully more drama happens soon, this is too fun of a ride to be over! SexyPhotosGate Forever!