The High Court yesterday upheld a 10-year prison sentence against a man for circulating sex videos of three women and two underage girls on the Internet.
The court rejected an appeal by Lee Wei-te (李威德), 27, who lives in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹), and upheld the convictions from two lower court rulings on 15 counts of sexual assault, coercion, endangering personal safety by threat, production and distribution of pornographic content, as well as sexually exploiting minors.
The court handed Lee a total sentence of 12 years and eight months for 12 convictions. Lee must serve 10 years of his sentence, while the remaining two years and eight months can be commuted to a fine of NT$970,000 (US$32,852). The ruling is final.
Lee had a YouTube channel and had a few female admirers, investigators said.
In 2016 and 2017, he uploaded videos of himself having sex with women and girls on YouTube and other Web sites, prompting the women to file complaints, investigators said.
Police found that Lee had made the recordings without the knowledge of his girlfriends or admirers with the intention to threaten them with releasing the videos if they wanted to break up.
Police also found copies of the recordings on Lee’s smartphone, which they said he showed to his friends.
The court also found Lee guilty of contravening the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防治條例), as two of his victims were aged 15 and 16 at the time.
A former girlfriend in her testimony said Lee threatened to assault her, and she had to apply three times for protection.
Lee told her that “I will make you pay,” and “If you do not agree, I will cut up your face,” she testified, adding that he also tried to assault her at her workplace.
In a separate litigation, Lee was found guilty of illegal expropriation and circulation of sex videos, after a woman filed a civil lawsuit asking for NT$1 million in damages.
The court ordered Lee to pay the woman NT$700,000.
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
RSS