A woman who was indicted on suspicion of abetting socialite Justin Lee (李宗瑞), who was charged with sexually assaulting 28 women and filming the acts, admitted in court yesterday that she had helped Lee hide from authorities and pleaded for a lenient sentence.
Chen Mei-lan (陳美蘭), who was charged with concealment of offenses and destruction of evidence by Taipei prosecutors, attended a hearing of the Taipei District Court yesterday morning.
Chen is suspected of having allowed Lee to stay in her home in Changhua County for three weeks amidmedia reports of Lee fleeing and investigators’ efforts to determine Lee’s whereabouts.
The 27-year-old Lee turned himself in to prosecutors on Aug. 23 after hiding in Chen’s residence since July 31.
Chen said during the hearing that she was a single mother raising three children. She was introduced to Lee and his father several years ago at a dinner party, and came to regard Lee as her own child.
“During his stay, Lee kept persuading me that he was innocent and that the accusations and media reports about the case were false,” Chen added.
“I allowed him to stay at my home out of mercy,” she said, pleading with the court to give her a probation sentence.
The court ruled Chen’s case would be decided on Dec. 10.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has indicted Lee on six charges of aggravated forcible rape, 12 charges of forcible rape, 10 charges of intercourse with an unconscious person and 17 charges of invasion of privacy.
Prosecutors said Lee was suspected of drugging a number of women in several luxury nightclubs in Taipei since August 2009, taking them home and raping them while they were unconscious.
Lee allegedly filmed all the sexual acts.
Some photographs — believed to be stills taken from the videos — were posted on the Internet shortly after Lee went into hiding.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai