An 80-year-old man surnamed Hsu (許) and his son were found not guilty of sexually harassing or raping a care worker in their employ, the New Taipei City District Court ruled yesterday, saying that a dispute the caregiver had with the family discredited her testimony.
The care worker, referred to by the pseudonym “Siao Hua” (小花), claimed that during her employment at the Hsu home in 2016 and 2017, she was groped daily by the elder Hsu and twice raped by his son, court documents said.
The verdict, the case’s first, can be appealed to a higher court.
The judges on the court’s collegiate bench said in the verdict that they found the younger Hsu not guilty of sexual assault, adding that prosecutors had not presented any physical evidence or corroboration for Siao Hua’s testimony about being raped.
The prosecutors also did not present evidence to support the molestation allegations against the elder Hsu, they said.
Siao Hua’s testimony that the elder Hsu groped her was contradicted by a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, which was “sufficient to cause a severe physical handicap,” the judges said.
Her credibility was undermined by a dispute over her Islamic dietary restrictions that she was known to have with the Hsu family, they said.
Although two of Siao Hua’s diary entries in May and June 2016 recorded incidents of alleged sexual molestation, the statutory time limit for the acts expired before the charges were brought in February 2017, they said.
As a result, the court dismissed the charges connected to the acts and the evidence with it, they added.
During the trial, the elder Hsu said that any physical contact between him and the caretaker had resulted from her helping him get around, not from sexual touching.
The son categorically denied the rape charges and said that Siao Hua was giving false testimony to avoid being sacked by the family for incompetence and a lack of motivation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard