Taipei prosecutors yesterday said they are investigating whether Taipei police officers were involved in distributing sex photographs and videos allegedly taken by Justin Lee (李宗瑞), who has been accused of committing sexual crimes.
Lee, a socialite wanted for allegedly drugging and raping several celebrities and other women and filming the acts, turned himself in to prosecutors on Thursday evening after spending more than three weeks on the run.
He was taken into custody following a hearing at the Taipei District Court.
Some of the photographs, believed to be stills taken from the videos, were found posted on the Internet shortly after Lee went on the run.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday that prosecutors have discovered that a Taipei police officer surnamed Chen (陳), who was on the task force dealing with Lee’s case, allegedly went to Lee’s father, former Yuanta Financial Holdings board member Lee Yueh-tsang (李岳蒼), and attempted to blackmail him with the photographs and videos.
Because Lee Yueh-tsang rejected the blackmail, the materials were then posted on the Internet, the Apple Daily reported.
Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭), chief of the Taipei City Police Department’s criminal police section, said yesterday he made a phone call to Lee Yueh-tsang in which the latter denied the media report that police officers had tried to blackmail him.
Meanwhile, Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Huang Mo-hsin (黃謀信) said he has no comment on the Apple Daily story, adding only that prosecutors are investigating the case.
During the district court hearing, 27-year-old Justin Lee denied the accusations made against him, saying his sexual activities had all been consensual and that he did not secretly film the acts or circulate any photographs and videos of him engaging in sexual acts with women.
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