After suffering from domestic violence from her husband, Hong Kong singer Colleen Lau (可嵐) finally spoke out about the problem. Although a past violent episode was reported to the police, Colleen rarely spoke about her situation with others as she felt a sense of shame and the need to give others the image that her marriage to restaurateur Tommy Yau (尤子威) was trouble-free. As the severity of their fights grew, Colleen decided to file for divorce. Previously convicted of assault and criminal damage charges, Tommy exhibited violent tendencies in their marriage. On June 2, Colleen suffered from a neck injury and her knuckles bled when a door slammed on her hand. Tommy also claimed to have injuries from the physical quarrel. Both pressed charges against each other for personal injuries. The domestic violence case is now under investigation by the police, and Colleen refused to reveal additional details. Although Colleen did not visit the doctor after suffering injuries, she previously contacted social workers that will be following up on the case. Son is a Priority Whenever she felt unhappy, Colleen would visit church and confide in her friends such as Engina Law (劉美娟). Her three-year-old son remains her main concern right now. Since Colleen grew up in a single-parent family, she did not want her son to go through the same childhood, but she has no choice now. “I can handle physical wounds, but when a child is emotionally hurt, it will leave a scar when he is growing up. I hope everyone can help protect this child. From now on, I will spend my life with him, and take care of him myself alone.” While dating, Colleen realized Tommy had a hot temper but still married him because she was already pregnant with their son. Since she is a Christian, Colleen tolerated Tommy’s faults and only considered divorce as the last option. She said, “When I decided to start a family with this man, I thought I would spend the rest of my life with him. I hoped that he would change, but our relationship had many problems and our personalities were incompatible. The decision [to divorce] is actually a good thing.” The couple has been living separately for several months. Husband Claims He is at a Disadvantage While Colleen’s claims of domestic violence immediately gained public sympathy, husband Tommy said that Colleen was also at fault. He said, “She is the one crying domestic violence, but was I also hit? It’s unfair to be a man these days. She is not a weak woman and is very explosive. One hand cannot clap out loud.” Tommy also denied slamming a door on Colleen’s hand in the June 2 incident, although admitted that the couple had an argument that night. Tommy said that Colleen’s hand was injured many months ago, “We were arguing about money. I didn’t want to argue with her. She stuck out her hand when I was closing the door.” In addition, the press revealed that Colleen allegedly has eight years of martial arts training and it was unlikely that she suffered frequent violence from Tommy without any measure of self-defense. Since Colleen had auditioned for the third season of The Voice of China <中國好聲音> in the Hong Kong district, some even speculated that she was using the domestic violence case for publicity to revive her singing career. [video=youtube;uCe9tnoR3bI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCe9tnoR3bI[/video]
