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Family convicted in torture case

A Banciao man -- along with his two sons -- will be sent to prison this week for torturing a young woman who was his daughter's lover.

Liu Chou-ming (劉昭明) yesterday told the Chinese-language Apple Daily that he and his two sons would report to Banciao (板橋) Prosecutors' Office on Wednesday to begin serving their prison terms.

"It is a family tragedy," Liu told the paper.

The Supreme Court late last month decided to uphold a ruling by the Taiwan High Court on the case involving four members of the Liu family.

According to a Supreme Court ruling, Liu and his two sons were sentenced to 18 months in jail, while his wife was given a suspended sentence because she has a mental illness.

Although Liu had urged his daughter not testify as a witness, her testimony proved key to the conviction.

The ruling said Liu Chou-ming's daughter, Liu Ching-ya (劉靜雅), then 37 years old, met the victim, surnamed Huang, then 21, in 1998. At that time, Liu was running a small clothing shop in Taipei County's Banciao City and Huang was selling fried chicken at a street stall beside her store.

According to the ruling, Liu Chou-ming told the Taiwan High Court that Huang looked like a man at that time because she had a shaved head and tattoos on her arms.

Liu told the court that he and his family were strongly against his daughter having a relationship with Huang.

Liu said that later that year his daughter stole an insurance contract from him, cancelled it and took more than NT$3 million (US$90,500) that had been invested in the policy and left home.

After she left, Liu said the family searched for her, and finally found her in Sijhih (汐止) City, Taipei County, where she was living with Huang.

The ruling said that later that year, Liu, his wife and their two sons went to Liu and Huang's home. They beat Huang with rods and chairs, and poured toilet cleaner in her hair.

They also humiliated her by forcing her to pose in some sexual positions and mocked her sexual orientation, the ruling added.

The four defendants then drove Huang to a mountainous area and left her there in her underwear.

The ruling noted that Liu Ching-ya had witnessed the torture and had testified about the details to the court.

Huang had accused Liu and his three family members of offenses against personal liberty and causing bodily harm.

Huang, who now runs a Chinese medicine health-care center in Taichung City, yesterday showed photographs of her injuries to the Apple Daily and described how difficult it was to be a lesbian in Taiwan.

She said she had dropped out of school because she was often laughed at by her classmates and even her teachers because she looked like a man.

Huang said that although Liu Ching-ya had continued to live with her after the incident, three years ago she decided to become a Buddhist nun.
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