The Taiwan High Court on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict in a case filed by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) against Tsai Yu-lin (蔡育林), organizer of the infamous “train sex party” in 2012.
The high court in Taipei affirmed a lower court’s decision, which found Tsai guilty and sentenced him to six months in prison, which can be commuted to a fine of NT$180,000.
Tuesday’s ruling required Tsai to issue a public apology in four major Chinese-language newspapers: the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Apple Daily, United Daily News and China Times.
The ruling can be appealed.
In February 2012, Tsai rented one of TRA’s train carriages for tour groups or holding private party functions.
Tsai advertised the event online, billed as a Taiwanese version of the Japanese pornography theme known as chikan, which features male molesters groping or having sex with female passengers, usually on crowded subways or trains.
Eighteen men, each paying NT$800, signed up, and reportedly engaged in sexual activities with a female known as “Hsiao Yu” (小雨), who claimed to be 19 years old, but was later found to be only 17 at the time.
Tsai also hired three men as security guards and two female assistants to provide services such as handing out towels and condoms, and to clean up.
According to Tsai, he had the carriage’s windows and doorways taped down for privacy, so the party would not be visible to people outside.
Tsai had Hsiao Yu dress in a short office attire and two female assistants dress as waitresses, while the male participants wore business suits for what he called a “role-playing sex fantasy.”
In a ruling on Sept. 13, 2013, the court found Tsai guilty of engaging in sexual trade for profit, while clearing the 18 male participants and five hired assistants of all charges.
The TRA then filed a lawsuit against Tsai in the civil court to seek damages. It claimed that the event had rendered that particular train carriage “dirty” and “obscene,” and that people might feel “unease, or disgust” with its train carriages after what happened.
Several sexual equality and civil rights groups rallied to support Tsai, defending “people’s freedom of assembly for sexual activities,” and calling for liberation from the nation’s outdated, repressive law on regulating sexual morality.
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