A marine conscript who claimed he was sexually assaulted by other marines in his company has been given an early discharge because of mental health problems, the marine corps said yesterday.
Investigations by the marine corps indicated that the man, a homosexual, had fabricated the allegations in a bid to win sympathy from his superiors.
A spokesman for the corps said the man, who was only identified by his surname Chiang, is a troublemaker and could not be of any use to the corps if he stayed.
"We did not discriminate against Chiang after finding out he was gay," the spokesman said. "We have have a number of gays in the corps but they have never caused as much trouble as Chiang has. They know where the line is."
"In the case of Chiang, we would like to say we have no pity for him. He had been cheating us from the very beginning. He was an actor," the spokesman said.
Chiang was drafted into service in mid-January and was assigned to a company in Kaohsiung at the end of March. Two days after reporting to the company, he requested sick leave to treat what he said were hemorrhoids.
Chiang went to a local military hospital, where doctors found him to be suffering not from hemorrhoids but wounds caused by anal intercourse. His superiors did not know until then that Chiang was gay.
He underwent surgery at the hospital and returned to his company several days later.
Once back at the base, Chiang was given a light work load because of his surgery. It was then that he approached his superiors with the allegations of sexual assault
He later claimed to suffer mental problems and asked to be treated at a hospital in Hsinchu where he been seen by psychiatric doctors before entering the military.
"We granted all his requests, but he turned to be a liar," the spokesman said. "He may have mental problems, but he was very sane while talking to us about his rights."
"He came from a single-parent family. His mother is all he has. He might be a spoiled child. His mother came to us several times for him. His mind was clear and stable before his mother came, but once she arrived, Chiang started to act like a mentally insane or mentally retarded man," he said.
"We are all sick of his performances. It is better to discharge him. But we are worried that other soldiers might copy him. It seems that we will have to spend more time on providing psychological counseling services to soldiers in the future," the spokesman said
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