Forgetting to log out of her Facebook account has led a woman and the man with whom she was having an affair to receive three month prison sentences.
A man, surnamed Liao (廖),was married to 26-year-old woman Yang (楊), and had long suspected that his wife was cheating on him, but had no concrete evidence to prove his claims, the court ruling said.
In December 2011, Liao turned on the computer he shared with his wife to sign into Facebook, but unwittingly logged into Yang’s account after she had forgotten to log out of the Web site.
After looking at his wife’s account, Liao’s suspicions were confirmed.
Liao said he found multiple messages between Yang and a 33-year-old man, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), adding that after he confronted his wife with the information she had admitted to having an extramarital affair.
During the course of the trial, Liao presented online conversations between Yang and Hsiao dated Jan. 9 last year, in which Yang said: “I feel immense guilt at having to sacrifice a home with [my] daughter for my happiness.”
“So admit that you’re having an extramarital affair, or give him money so he can’t sue [us] on charges of adultery,” Hsiao replied.
Yang responded, saying “Liao would not take the money, but would file suit.”
Hsiao then told Yang that she “should just deny the entire matter.”
The online conversations also showed Yang saying that: “I would not be eligible for my child’s guardianship because I am the one having the extramarital affair.”
As evidence for the trial, Liao also presented an online conversation in which Yang told Hsiao that she suspected Liao knew the two had been together on New Year’s Eve in 2011.
Yang also said that she suspected Liao would hire a private investigator.
In the same conversation, she and Hsiao made contingency plans in case Liao found out about the affair.
Hsiao said that Yang should admit she liked him, but deny that they ever had any sexual contact, adding that Liao would have to provide proof to sue them for adultery.
As long as Liao had no proof that they had slept together, it would be difficult to obtain a conviction since photographs of them kissing or hugging would not be sufficient, Hsiao said.
If Liao read any of Yang’s text messages, Hsiao told her to dismiss any messages concerning sex as jokes, adding that both of them should deny the matter entirely if they were ever found out.
During the trial, both Yang and Hsiao denied the charges of adultery and both filed charges against Liao for Offenses Of Impairment to Use of Computers (妨害電腦使用罪).
However, prosecutors said that since Yang had not logged out of her Facebook page and had also requested that the Web site remember her account and password, Liao was innocent of violating the act and would not be charged.
Meanwhile, the court said that although Hsiao and Yang were not caught red-handed, the evidence gathered from their Facebook conversations was enough to prove that their affair was real.
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