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The Court of Appeals acquitted controversial ex-doctor and model Hayden Kho Jr. in the criminal case stemming from a sex video scandal with his ex-girlfriend actress Katrina Halili.
In an eight-page resolution signed by Associate Justice Manuel Barrios, the second division of appellate court affirmed the initial ruling of Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 159, which dismisses the case filed by Halili against Kho for violation of Republic Act No. 9262 or Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act.
According to the Court of Appeals, they agreed with the Pasig Regional Trial Court’s statement that Halili’s accusations have no further basis that Kho videotaped their intercourse without Halili knowing it.
“It is our considered view that public respondent did not commit grave abuse of discretion in denying due course to the appeal,”
The Pasig Regional Trial Court dismissed the case against Hayden in 2010 and insisted that it was impossible for the actress not know that Hayden videotaped their sexual intercourse in a hotel. The ocular inspection in the said hotel was the basis of the investigation in which the distance between the bed and the table which the camera was set up was only five feet apart.
“This should explain why the accused did not anymore ask for private complainant Halili’s express consent to the video taking. There was no need to belabor the obvious: the video camera was there visible to both of them, it was aimed at the direction of the bed, and it was already the fourth occasion when their libidinous activities were recorded in video. That is why the Court cannot believe the prosecution’s insistence that the private complainant was unaware of the video taking. The mere taking of the sex video by the accused without the private complainant’s knowledge and consent is not yet a violation of Republic Act 9262, otherwise known as the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004. It becomes a crime only when the said act ‘alarms or causes substantial emotional or psychological distress to the woman,” part of the statement of the court.
However, the Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of the Professional Regulation Commission on revoking Hayden’s professional license as a doctor. In the issued decision of the appellate court, they rejected Kho’s petition against the Aug. 22, 2011 decision of the PRC regarding the administrative case filed against him.
Hayden Kho was a former doctor of the Belo Medical Group and was involved in a series of sex scandals.
In the previous decision made by PRC, Kho was found guilty of immorality and dishonorable and unethical conduct. The case was filed by actress Katrina Halili way back in 2009.
In the new ruling, the Court of Appeals insisted that it was under the jurisdiction of the PRC to enforce the suspension order and revocation of professional license of Kho. The court also dismissed Kho’s alibi that his license should not be seized because his sex scandal doesn’t have anything to do with his profession.
Aside from Katrina Halili, other women in Kho’s notorious sex video tapes featured actress Maricar Reyes and a Brazilian model.
