Taipei prosecutors have decided not to press charges against a man whose daughter had accused him of rape after repeatedly dreaming that he had forced himself upon her.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said on Wednesday that the girl, nicknamed Hsiao Ju (小茹), said that since February last year, she had often dreamed of her father raping her and that the dreams sometimes felt so real, she would wake up crying.
Prosecutors said that unlike other rape victims, the high-school girl appeared calm and collected when she made her statement.
She also said that she believed her father, a teacher, is not a rapist. However, she decided to press charges because the dreams felt so real that she could no longer tell whether they were just dreams or reality, and this had affected her performance in school, prosecutors said.
Hsiao Ju’s mother told investigators that she also had the same dream of being raped every so often, but that whenever she woke up, she would see her husband sleeping beside her, prosecutors said.
While Hsiao Ju’s younger sister had never had the same dream, she said she had dreamed several times that the whole family were in a car crash, they said.
“We asked if Hsiao Ju could be examined to see if there are lesions on her body or if we could collect any sample, but her mother refused, saying Hsiao Ju was too young,” the prosecutors said.
Since they could find no evidence, they decided not to indict the father.
However, the prosecutors said they wondered whether there might be “supernatural causes” behind these dreams.
They said the family had hired exorcists to cleanse the house, and had a few nights of decent sleep, but the dreams had started again.
Yuan Wei (袁瑋), a doctor at Cheng Hsin General Hospital’s psychiatry department, said that dreams are a reflection of things that the conscious mind cannot express during the day.
Rape is an act of great psychological and physical abuse, and if there had been no actual rape, it is possible that Hsiao Ju, her mother and sister are all under extreme pressure, the source of which may be the father, as he is the main antagonist in their dreams, Yuan said.
That Hsiao Ju and her mother have had the same dream could be because the two are very close or have talked about it and are unconsciously influencing each other, Yuan said.
Since the issue has affected Hsiao Ju’s schoolwork and the family’s life, Yuan said they should seek professional counseling and find the source of pressure within the family.
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