The Taiwan High Court yesterday extended by a year the jail sentence passed down to a pastor convicted of raping three teenage girls in his care, saying that he had shown little remorse over his crimes.
Reverend Lin Chin-yu (
Prosecutors appealed to the Taiwan High Court, which yesterday sentenced him to five years in jail.
Presiding Judge Chen Chun-chiu (陳春秋) read the verdict, written by Judge Wang Li-li (王麗莉): "Lin was supposed to take care of these three teenage girls since he is a clergyman. But he took advantage of the girls' trust in him and raped them. In addition, he showed no remorse during the trial for what he had done," the judge wrote. "As a result, this court has decided to put him behind bars for five years."
Taiwan High Court spokesman Tsai Kuo-tsai (
"He never showed remorse about what he had done. This was the main reason why the judges decided to prolong his sentence from four years to five years," Tsai said.
Lin, who was present for yesterday's appeal hearing and denies the charges, was visibly upset and apparently somewhat stunned at the outcome.
"I do not know what to say. I may be able to react when I receive the verdict," he said to reporters after the hearing.
Lin is the head of a Christian church and youth center with branches in Hsintien, Taipei County, Yuanli and Miaoli County. The two centers take care of orphans and teenagers who have dropped out of school as a result of crime or drug problems.
One of the victims in the case is 14 years old. The other two are both 16. All three lived at Lin's center in Hsintien.
According to the verdict, Lin began to force the girls to have sex with him in November 2000.
The three girls told their parents what Lin had done and said they did not want to stay at the church anymore. Their parents filed a suit against Lin in 2001.
Lin defended himself during his trial and said that the three girls had been troublemakers before they came to the center. But he also said he knew what he had done was wrong, but had been unable to control his urges.
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