Prosecutors on Friday said they would appeal what they called a lenient five-year jail term for a Yunlin County school coach who was convicted of indecent acts with five underage girls.
The Yunlin District Court on Thursday convicted the 60-year-old man, imposing a 98-month jail sentence, of which he must serve only five years.
As it was the first ruling, the case can still be appealed.
Prosecutors had charged him with offenses against sexual autonomy, which refers to sexual assault, but the judges convicted him on several counts of the lesser offense of indecency.
The prosecutors said they could not accept the ruling, as the sentence was too lenient for the sexual assault of the five girls, all elementary-school students younger than 14, which took place over four months last year.
According to the indictment, the man, a school custodian who also coached table tennis, allegedly took individual girls to a motel under the pretense of needing extra training sessions and to try on the team uniform.
From May to August last year, he allegedly undressed and groped the girls in the motel room before kissing their breasts and violating them in other ways, the indictment reads.
Prosecutors said they had enough to convict the man and asked for a severe punishment, as they had obtained testimony from the five victims and gathered evidence, including hospital examination reports certifying that several victims had their hymen broke due to sexual assault.
However, in their ruling, the judges said there was insufficient evidence to prove sexual assault, arguing that the majority of testimony was from the victims and that a torn hymen could have resulted from other causes.
As such, the man could only be convicted of indecency and not sexual assault, the judges said.
Members of the public and netizens were angered by what they said was a lenient sentence, saying that the judges showed a blatant bias by only believing the defendant and basically disregarded the victims’ testimony.
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