HONG KONG: Celebrity sex photos of pop star Edison Chen Koon-hei circulated in a computer center months before surfacing on the Internet, the Kowloon City Magistracy heard yesterday.

Terry Ip, owner of Elite Multimedia Limited from where the disgraced pop icon's photos were stolen, said the man accused in the case, Dicky Sze Ho-chun, admitted showing the photos to others.

Sze is accused of stealing Chen's intimate pictures. Sze pleaded not guilty to three counts of obtaining access to a computer with a view to dishonest gain.

On the third day of the trial, Ip testified that he was informed about the sexually explicit images by staff members after they had repaired Chen's computer in 2006. Ip said he ordered technician Chris Tse Lap-kiu to delete all backup files immediately.

Months later, in mid 2007, Ip said he learned the photos had been stolen when he overheard customers at the 298 Computer Zone in Wan Chai discussing erotic celebrity photo images.

Ip told the court he became very nervous and called his three employees, Tse, Sze and Benny Chan.

"I asked Sze if he knew about the incident for twice but he didn't respond," Ip recalled.

The employer called Sze again after learning a massive number of lewd photos were circulating on the Internet in late January, 2008.

"He said he did show the photos to two people on his cell phone but he had deleted all images a long time ago," Ip said.

Tse told the court that only Sze was with him when he repaired Chen's laptop in the loft of Elite Multimedia.

He copied the data from Chen's computer to an external hard disk to back up files. That's when he discovered 40GB of nude photos portraying entertainers including Chen, Gillian Chung and Bobo Chan.

"I exclaimed when I saw the pictures. Sze who was behind me turned around and we read the images for a short while," Tse said.

He asked Sze to pretend that he never saw the photos and the man now accused in the case nodded his head in agreement.

Tse took an hour to repair Chen's laptop and during the time he went downstairs several times, leaving Sze alone with the hard disk. Tse said he erased the images around three days later.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Kevin Tang, Tse denied stealing the pictures but agreed somebody else could have accessed the hard disk before he deleted the files.

Ip also rejected suggestions that he downloaded the sex photos for his own use or for others or that he took the hard disc on which the photos were stored to his home.

The trial continues today.

(HK Edition 04/09/2009 page1)