The Ciaotou District Court in Kaohsiung yesterday sentenced a 30-year-old man to death for raping and killing a Malaysian university student in 2020.
Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌) committed a “brutal” premeditated crime that caused panic among the public and “seriously hurt Taiwan’s image,” the court said in its ruling.
The court convicted Liang of sexual assault, homicide and disposing of the body of the 24-year-old Malaysian woman, surnamed Chung (鍾).
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
It also found Liang guilty of attempted sexual assault of another woman one month before Chung’s murder.
Combining the penalties in the two cases, the court sentenced Liang to death and permanently stripped him of his right to run for office or work as a civil servant.
The ruling can be appealed.
The court said Liang abducted Chung on a street on Oct. 28, 2020, as she was walking home from the campus of Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan.
Liang, who was 28 at the time, sexually assaulted the student, strangled her with a rope and disposed of her body in a mountainous area in Kaohsiung, it said.
The evidence presented in court showed that Liang’s crimes were premeditated, it said.
Liang on Sept. 30 that year attempted to sexually assault another Chang Jung University student, after which he continued to visit the area and began practicing the hangman’s knot, which he later used to strangle Chung, the court said.
Liang showed no remorse when he was arrested in Kaohsiung the day after the murder and instead tried to mislead police, it said.
There was a chance of more than 50 percent that Liang would commit similar crimes if he were ever to be released from jail, the court said.
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