Taoyuan prosecutors indicted a pastor on Friday on charges of sexually abusing 13 young female members of his congregation, and were seeking a 15-year prison term.
Tang Tai-shen (唐台生), 58, who has a prior conviction for molestation, is suspected of sexually assaulting the women under the pretext of offering sex counseling in sessions that he videotaped.
OTHERS INDICTED
Eight female staffers, including Tang's daughter-in-law, who was in charge of recruiting members for Tang's congregation, were also indicted on charges of molestation.
Prosecutors are seeking an eight-year sentence for one of those staffers, Wu Ching-jung (
CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS
Prosecutors said that Wu and Tang had sexual intercourse in September last year in front of a female congregation member. Wu then asked the woman to have sex with Tang, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said several women have told them that Tang assaulted them and that they did not consent to having sex. Tang claims the sex was consensual.
SENTENCE
Tang was arrested in June when the sex sessions came to light and has been in police detention since then. He faces a maximum 10-year jail term if convicted of rape and a maximum of five years if found guilty of molestation.
In 1999, Tang was arrested for molesting more than 30 female congregation members and was sentenced to three years and two months in prison in a case that shocked the nation.
He was released in June 2001, after which he continued to recruit young female religious followers, whom he sexually assaulted, prosecutors said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique