The Taiwan High Court yesterday handed 29-year-old Justin Lee (李宗瑞) the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for a string of sexual assaults and for filming sex acts without consent.
Lee was also ordered to compensate the victims a total of NT$27.75 million (US$926,000).
He appeared in court for the ruling, which can be appealed with the Supreme Court.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Lee is from a wealthy family. His father, Lee Yueh-tsang (李岳蒼), was a board member of Yuanta Financial Holding Co (元大金控) and a director at Yuanta Securities Co (元大寶來證券), but resigned after his son became embroiled in the scandal.
The 29-year-old was initially accused of date-raping 28 women he picked up at nightclubs around Taipei since 2009.
Most of the women were incapacitated to varying degrees after consuming drinks that officials said Lee laced with date-rape drugs.
In September last year, the Taipei District Court found him guilty of raping nine women and filming sex acts with 17 women without their consent.
Lee has been detained since August 2012 and has maintained that he is innocent of the charges.
He said that his picking up women for consensual sex was a “normal aspect of Taipei’s nightclub culture.”
Media reports said the 30-year jail term for Lee is an unusually heavy sentence for sexual assault crimes in Taiwan.
Witnesses said Lee was shaken upon hearing the ruling, describing him as glaring, with his mouth open in “an expression of disbelief.”
In the first ruling on Lee’s case in September last year, the Taipei District Court handed him a combined jail term of 22 years and four months and ordered that he pay NT$14.25 million in compensation.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS