Taichung prosecutors are investigating the case of a seven-year-old boy who is in a deep coma after his judo instructor allegedly threw him to the ground 27 times during training on Wednesday.
The instructor, surnamed Ho (何), was initially released without bail yesterday, after prosecutors questioned him and reviewed video footage, they said.
The boy’s father, surnamed Huang (黃), decried the decision, saying that Ho should be detained because he “deliberately killed a helpless child.”
Later last night, Ho was detained after prosecutors conducted another round of questioning.
Footage from the judo gym shows Ho and others repeatedly performing a shoulder throw on the boy, despite him being unable to stand and begging them to stop.
Prosecutors cited Ho as saying that “it was a normal judo lesson. We did not use inappropriate force and had no idea that he sustained grave injuries.”
A doctor at a hospital to which the boy was admitted on Friday said that he was unconscious upon arrival, and had seizures.
The boy also had cerebral hemorrhaging, which made emergency surgery necessary, the doctor said, adding that he is in intensive care and has unstable vital signs.
He is in a near brain-dead condition, the doctor said.
The boy’s parents have requested charges against Ho for negligence resulting in injuries, prosecutors said.
The Chinese Taipei Judo Federation, the sport’s national governing body, said that Ho does not have a license issued by the federation or any other qualification to teach judo.
It said that the footage showed Ho engaging in exercises that are “definitely … not the way to teach children.”
The federation has regulations concerning the use of force to the neck and head of children “to ensure safety and protect the trainees,” it said, urging parents to only send their children to gyms that follow the regulations and have qualified staff.
The federation has been accused of not doing enough to ensure the quality of judo training and was criticized that it took two days for it to respond to the incident.
The federation said it would increase inspections at gyms, and offer better and more selective training programs for instructors.
The instructor has allegedly been teaching children for 10 years.
This story has been updated since it was first published.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow