Three police officers in Tainan accused of improperly handling a report that could have potentially helped prevent the murder of a female Malaysian student last year were impeached and referred to a disciplinary court on Tuesday, the Control Yuan said yesterday.
Kao Wu-yuan (高武源), Chang Chung-ken (張忠肯) and Yang Ching-yu (楊慶裕), who were stationed at Tainan City Police Department’s Gueiren (歸仁) Precinct, did not properly handle a report of an attempted abduction reported by a female Taiwanese student enrolled at the same university as the victim, one month before the murder took place, the Control Yuan said.
The first student on Sept. 30 last year reported to Kao and his supervisor, Chang, that a man placed his hand over her mouth and attempted to abduct her at the same location where the Malaysian student was taken by the same man on Oct. 28, it said.
The student reported that she screamed for help and was able to break free, but Kao did not record the case in his log or fill out any paperwork on the case, while Chang failed to ensure that he did, it added.
That the suspect sought to use violence to abduct the female student constituted a crime that should have been investigated, but Kao and Chang were negligent in their duty to protect the public, the Control Yuan said.
Yang, then the police chief at Gueiren Precinct, also failed to clarify the details of the earlier case with Kao and Chang, even after the murder of the Malaysian student, it said.
An Oct. 29 statement released by the precinct falsely stated that the first student never reported the attempted abduction to police, it added.
Yang also on Oct. 30 falsely stated that the student had been unable to provide key information about the suspect and had declined to file a report, claims that severely damaged the image of the police, the Control Yuan said.
The 24-year-old Malaysian student, surnamed Chung (鍾), attended Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan. She was allegedly raped and strangled to death by the suspect, Liang Yu-chih (梁育誌), who later dumped her body in Kaohsiung’s mountainous Alian District (阿蓮).
After the murder, Yang and Chang were reassigned, while Kao retired in December last year.
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