The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a sentence of 39 years and two months that had been handed to Justin Lee (李宗瑞) for sexually assaulting nine women and filming the acts.
Lee, 33, had been previously sentenced in a separate trial to 20 years for sexually assaulting another five women and filming the acts.
The two sentences are to be combined, and Lee would have to serve a maximum of 30 years.
The Supreme Court ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Described in the media as a playboy, Lee reportedly enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle.
Allegations against Lee began to emerge in 2012, after he was accused of surreptitiously placing sleeping pill powder into alcoholic drinks, to render his victims unconscious or in a weakened state.
Investigators said that he would then take them back to his residence and rape them. Some of the women involved included starlets and models.
Lee also filmed the acts at his home.
The tapes, which became known as “Justin Lee’s sex tapes,” were leaked and circulated online.
His father, Lee Yueh-tsang (李岳蒼), was a board member of Yuanta Financial Holding Co and a director at Yuanta Securities Co, but resigned after his son became embroiled in the scandal.
In its ruling yesterday, the court said that Justin Lee’s encounters with the nine women occurred from 2010 to 2011, when he visited nightclubs at Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), near Taipei City Hall and the Taipei 101 Building.
“[Justin] Lee violated the women’s rights to sexual autonomy, and his actions had caused mental anguish and trauma to the victims,” the court said.
“He had committed the crime numerous times and did not admit to his guilt when under investigation,” it added.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
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