The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a ruling requiring Justin Lee (李宗瑞), who was convicted of sexual assault and other related offenses, to pay compensation totaling NT$15.25 million (US$493,528) to seven additional victims.
Lee had appealed the ruling, claiming that the victims were not mentally or physically handicapped, suffering from a mental or intellectual defect, or incapable of resisting at the time.
The Supreme Court said that it rejected the appeal because Lee appealed the amount of compensation and on factual grounds rather than on legal grounds, which must be the case for third-trial appeals.
The victims involved in the ruling were codenamed C1, C9, F, H, C8, C5 and C2, sources said, adding that they are to each receive between NT$1.75 million and NT$2.55 million in compensation.
Lee was ordered to pay NT$2.3 million in compensation to the victim codenamed F, who had asked for NT$10 million, they said.
During the second trial, the victim codenamed F said that she had been friends with Lee for years.
Seven years ago, after a night of partying at a nightclub, Lee took her back to his residence and raped her while she was drunk, she said, adding that Lee also secretly filmed her.
In addition to a previous ruling, which ordered Lee to pay a total of NT$8.6 million in compensation to four other victims, the amount has increased to NT$23.85 million, the largest sum anyone who has committed rape in the nation has been ordered to pay.
The sources said that 18 women have asked Lee for compensation.
Apart from the 11 compensation cases that have been settled, several women have also reached private settlements with Lee, they said.
Lee was previously handed a 20-year jail term for raping five women and filming the acts without their consent, and a jail term of 39 years and two months for raping nine women and other related offenses.
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