Yilan County authorities have detained a 37-year-old firefighter trainee pending an investigation into the alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.
The man allegedly filmed his abuse of at least 10 underage girls, which he used to threaten them with, prosecutors said.
As Wang Shih-tsung (王士聰) previously worked as a kindergarten teacher, prosecutors said they might uncover more and younger victims.
Prosecutors on Friday said that they intend to charge Wang with offenses against sexual autonomy, and child and youth sexual exploitation, while continuing to gather evidence and conduct interviews.
Wang passed the firefighter examination last year, and since then had been receiving instruction at the National Fire Agency’s firefighter training center in Nantou County’s Jhusan (竹山).
Prosecutors said that Wang accessed chat and dating sites via Line and Facebook, where he spoke with girls under 14 years of age.
In one instance, Wang allegedly spoke online and shared photographs with a junior-high school student nicknamed “Little Flower” before asking her out fora meal, prosecutors said, adding that he took her to his apartment to drink alcohol.
After Little Flower was intoxicated, Wang allegedly forced himself on her and took photographs and video of the encounter, they said, adding that Little Flower afterward refused to see Wang, but he allegedly threatened to circulate the video and photos.
Little Flower said she had no choice but to continue to see him and had sex 15 more times, prosecutors said.
Little Flower’s parents reported the case to the police after observing strange behavior from their daughter.
Investigators said they traced Wang to the firefighter training center and found explicit video and photos of Little Flower and other girls on his computer and mobile phone.
As of Friday, investigators said that they found evidence of 10 victims.
Wang reportedly told investigators during questioning that he had paid up to NT$300 to the girls after each encounter.
He also denied sexual assault allegations, saying he was in regular love relationships and the girls had consented to sex.
However, prosecutors said that most of the videos showed the victims drunk and incapacitated.
After prosecutors applied to detain Wang and indicated that they plan to press charges, the firefighter training center expelled him and stripped him of his qualification.
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