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.
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