Taipei prosecutors yesterday indicted Tang Tsung-hao (唐宗浩), a prominent homeschooling advocate, on sexual harassment charges after he allegedly grabbed a little girl in September and kissed her several times.
Tang, 34, a resident of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), took his three-year-old son for an evening stroll at a temple, where a woman had brought her two daughters, the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
While the woman was busy playing with her two-year-old daughter, Tang allegedly grasped her four-year-old daughter by the face and kissed her, prosecutors said, citing testimony from the woman and her daughters, as well as surveillance camera footage.
Photo: Chen En-hui, Taipei Times
Tang reportedly picked the girl up four times to kiss her, prosecutors said, adding that the girl wiped her mouth with her hand after she was put down.
The mother and video footage indicated that Tang stopped after the woman saw him. She then took her daughters and filed a police complaint.
When the incident went public, Tang apologized, saying it was a spur of moment decision and he did not have bad intentions.
Prosecutors said that Tang during questioning admitted to the action, saying: “I just wanted to play. The little girl was very cute and I could not help myself.”
Prosecutors decided to press charges of aggravated forced obscenity against a minor.
The allegations received significant media attention, as Tang is the younger brother of Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳).
Tang Tsung-hao is chief information officer of the Institute for the Advancement of Autonomous Learning, a parent and educator group that advocates homeschooling.
In a separate case, a 70-year-old man surnamed Wu (吳) was convicted last month on aggravated forced obscenity charges for sexually abusing a three-year-old girl.
The New Taipei City District Court sentenced Wu to four years and two months in prison, and ordered him to pay NT$1 million (US$32,487) in damages to the victim and her family.
The court found that Wu in August 2016 assaulted the girl, who was being cared for by his wife through a daycare center she operated from their home.
Investigators found that Wu kissed the girl, then removed her underwear, groped her genitals and pressed his penis against her body.
It was the first ruling on the case and can be appealed.
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