A New Taipei City woman was yesterday convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison for the drowning death of her 15-year-old learning-disabled nephew, while the High Court reduced the sentences of two people convicted in the 2007 murder of a homeless man as part of an insurance fraud.
The teen’s body was found in the Sanchong District (三重) home of his 39-year-old aunt, surnamed Liu (劉), with his hands and legs bound in ropes.
Liu told the New Taipei District Court that she had used ropes to restrain her nephew because he would not listen to instructions, and that while she had been trying to punish him, she had not meant for him to drown.
The teen reportedly had behavior problems due to his disabilities, and had once set his family’s home on fire while playing with a lighter.
Following the death of his mother, his father last year moved them in with the aunt’s family.
The court said that Liu had used cruel methods to inflict pain and fear as punishment, but as she had admitted her guilt and shown remorse, and the boy’s father had forgiven her, it decided to give her a 12-year term for manslaughter.
Meanwhile, the High Court reduced the sentences of real-estate agent Lee Hsien-chang (李憲璋) and his former girlfriend, surnamed Lien (連), in the second retrial for the insurance-linked murder of a homeless man surnamed Liang (梁).
An investigation found that Lee was saddled with business debts and had plotted with Lien for her to marry Liang (梁) and take out a NT$50 million (US$1.66 million at the current exchange rate) insurance policy on his life.
Lien and Liang went to China for their honeymoon, where Liang was pushed off a mountain cliff.
Lien returned home and filed an insurance claim.
However, the insurer requested a judicial investigation and Liang’s father said that he had questions about the marriage and the accounts of his son’s death, as his son was lame as a result of polio.
Lee, now 47, was convicted on murder and forgery charges, and was sentenced to life in the first retrial, while Lien was sentenced to 10 years and six months.
The High Court yesterday reduced Lee’s term to 17 years and Lien’s to eight.
In other judiciary-related news, the Control Yuan yesterday impeached Hsinchu District Court Judge Wu Chen-fu (吳振富), 50, for alleged improper conduct over his reported demands that a female office assistant give him massages and run personal errands for him.
The Control Yuan cited the findings of an investigation last year by the Judicial Yuan’s Judicial Evaluation Committee, which found that Wu had on four occasions ordered his assistant to give him a massage and had required her to pick up his laundry, pay the family’s utility bills, look for tutors for his children and make travel arrangements for family vacations.
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