A 25-year-old mainland man holding a folding fruit knife robbed early Monday morning HK$4,000 in cash, a gold bracelet worth 25,000 yuan and HK$5,000 in cash separately from three middle-aged women at two hotels in Cotai within just an hour, raping one of them, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lou Chan Fai said yesterday.

Lou announced details of the string of crimes by the suspect during yesterday’s special press conference, saying that after notifying the mainland police through the two places’ emergency liaison mechanisms, the Judiciary Police, in conjunction with their mainland counterparts, solved the case in less than 12 hours. The jobless suspect surnamed Bai was arrested in Zhongshan city’s Tanzhou town in the twilight hours of the day of the crime by the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department.

According to Lou, the Judiciary Police were notified by the Public Security Police (PSP) at around 6 a.m. on Monday of a knifepoint robbery and rape case at a hotel guestroom in Cotai. The first victim reported that she met Bai at the hotel lobby at 4 a.m. on that day, and later both returned to her guestroom for a chat, during which Bai suddenly took out a folding fruit knife with a blade about 10 centimetres in length, robbing her of HK$4,000 in cash, while also threatening and forcing her to have sex with him. The victim sought help from the hotel staff and reported the case to the police after Bai had fled the scene.

In the course of the PJ investigation, the Judiciary Police were notified of another knifepoint robbery by a security guard at another hotel in Cotai at 7:40 a.m. on that day, Lou said, adding that after committing the rape and the first robbery, Bai walked to another hotel, purporting to be a currency exchange dealer to trick the second victim into exchanging money with him in her guestroom. “It so happened that the victim needed cash for gambling, so she took the suspect back to her room,” Lou said, adding that after entering the room, Bai took out his folding fruit knife and threatened the victim and her female friend, who happened to be in the room, to hand over their belongings, comprising a gold bracelet valued at 2,500 yuan and HK$5,000 in cash. The two victims who tried to resist the suspect were slapped and beaten by him during the robbery, sustaining minor injuries to their forearms and necks.

Bai evaded arrest by changing his clothes and returning to the mainland via the Barrier Gate border checkpoint on the morning of the crime, Lou said.

The three victims are from the mainland. Lou did not reveal the purpose of their stay in Macau, and neither did he disclose any additional information about the suspect.

Customarily, mainland suspects who committed a crime in Macau but were arrested in the mainland are not sent back to Macau but stand trial in the mainland. 

These handout photos provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) during yesterday’s press conference show the two mainland victims’ injuries caused by the mainland suspect when robbing them at knifepoint in a hotel guestroom in Cotai on Monday.