The former manager of a daycare center in New Taipei City and two caregivers were on Wednesday sentenced to prison terms between eight and 16 months, after they were found guilty of abusing six toddlers.
In the New Taipei District Court case, Hsia Hui-chuan (夏惠娟), manager of Yu Hsin Daycare Center, was sentenced to nine months in jail, while Chiang Pei-jou (江珮柔) and Chen Hui-ting (陳慧婷), employees of the center, were sentenced to eight and 16 months respectively.
The sentences are commutable to fines, and the ruling can still be appealed, the court filing showed.
The court said that as childcare professionals, the three were expected to take responsibility for the welfare and education of young children, but they physically abused them, which might have caused long-lasting trauma.
The three reached settlements with the parents of only two of the six toddlers, the court said, adding that it therefore decided not to grant them suspended sentences, as they had sought.
The case was first made public in January last year when the parents of the six children in a news conference showed a video they recorded of the abuse at the center.
In the surveillance camera footage, which was leaked by a former employee of the center, one caregiver is seen shaking a toddler.
The video also showed another caregiver hitting a crying toddler on the feet with a wooden spatula, and a third caregiver beating a small child and forcing them into a cupboard.
New Taipei City prosecutors and the city’s Social Welfare Department subsequently launched separate investigations into the case.
The department later fined Hsia, Chiang and Chen NT$140,000 each and publicized their names. The daycare center was fined NT$300,000 and its operating license was suspended for a year.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Police today said they are stepping up patrols throughout the Taipei MRT system, after a social media user threatened to detonate a bomb at an unspecified station this afternoon. Although they strongly believe the threat to be unsubstantiated, Taipei Metro police and the Railway Police Bureau still said that security and patrols would be heightened through the system. Many copycat messages have been posted since Friday’s stabbing attacks at Taipei Main Station and near Zhongshan MRT Station that left three dead and 11 injured, police said. Last night, a Threads user in a post said they would detonate a bomb on the Taipei
RSS