A Hong Kong court has handed down jail sentences of up to 16 years to two men for sexually exploiting two girls when the defendants separately had a relationship with the victims’ mother six to eight years ago.

The High Court on Wednesday also sentenced the mother to four years for child cruelty, including locking the girls in a pitch-black bathroom for hours, and hindering a police investigation after the crimes came to light in April 2023.

The two male defendants, former computer technician Quan Zhiming, 53, and retired security guard Li Kam-fai, 71, were slammed for their “serious breach of trust” by assaulting the two minors on 18 occasions between 2017 and 2019.

Quan, from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in mainland China, was given the heaviest sentence of 16 years for four counts of unlawful sex with a girl under 13 and six of indecent assault.

Li was jailed for four years on eight counts of indecent assault.

The 49-year-old mother, only identified in court by her initials ND, was jailed on seven counts of child cruelty and one of perverting the course of justice.