Edison Chen (middle) leaves the Supreme Court surrounded by bodyguards on Monday in Vancouver, Canada. [AFP]?

Hong Kong's showbiz celebrity Edison Chen Kwoon-hei on Monday testified in a Vancouver court that the publication of photographs of him having sex with four female celebrities was a "planned and malicious attack".

The Canadian-born pop icon, whose career was devastated because of the scandal, said in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver that he feared for his safety if he returned to Hong Kong.

Chen, one of Asia's biggest entertainment stars, gave evidence in the case of Sze Ho-Chun, a computer technician charged in Hong Kong with illegally posting the explicit photos online.

Chen said the explicit photos showing him in compromising positions with various celebrities, including Canto-pop star Gillian Chung, actress Cecilia Cheung and former actress Bobo Chan, were taken between 2001 and 2006, all of them "consensually".

"None of the photos had ever been shown to anyone else," he said. "I'm quite a private person... this (the pictures) was never meant for anyone else to see," he said.

Chen said it came as a "huge shock" when he realized the photos had been splashed across the Internet in January 2008. Police investigations revealed the photos were uploaded from Chen's laptop.

Chen said he believed the photos stored on his computer "were stolen" after he gave the computer to a shop for repairs.

He testified that not only were the digital files password protected but that he had intentionally "erased all the images before he took the computer to the shop".

He said he was not conversant with encrypted data and learned only later that deleted files could be recovered.

"They invaded my privacy and stole my things in a very direct way," he testified.

Among hundreds of photos, 40 were clicked by the four women while the rest by Chen. After naming the four women, Chen declined to answer further questions related to them, saying they were irrelevant to the case.

"I'm determined to protect their innocence. They have suffered enough," he said.

The trial of the accused technician will begin in April in Hong Kong.

(China Daily February 25, 2009)