The Taipei District Court on Thursday sentenced a male teacher at a Taipei elementary school to more than three years in jail for the sexual abuse of a pre-teen girl, and ordered the school to pay financial compensation to the parents.
The court filing said that man, surnamed Huang (黃), was a teacher and a sports coach for the girl’s class at the Taipei elementary school, and took advantage of his authority with regards to the girl’s care.
An investigation said an intimate relationship began when the girl was about 11 or 12 years old, from October 2016 to June the following year, during which time Huang said he was consensually dating the girl.
Huang spent private time with the girl in the school’s gym equipment room and in a secluded spot at a Taipei riverside park, investigators said.
The court found the teacher guilty of sexual assault and sentenced him to three years and four months under the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例).
The girl’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against the school, seeking NT$5.38 million (US$175,788) in damages, citing negligence and failure to report the abuse when it was discovered by staff. The court awarded NT$1 million in its verdict.
The parents said the principal, one of the girl’s teachers, the head of student affairs and the head of the school’s physical education program all knew about the relationship, but none of them made an effort to stop the abuse or initiate an investigation.
They also said that the school should have installed surveillance cameras in the equipment room.
The four staff members allegedly discussed the matter privately with Huang and the girl without providing counseling for the child or informing the parents.
School officials said during the trial that they were not responsible for the teacher’s actions, as they had no knowledge of the abuse, and that it had occurred after the girl had graduated from the school upon finishing grade 6.
They also said that they had no reason to have surveillance cameras installed without any knowledge of illicit activity happening there.
The girl passed a lie detector test and had corroborating testimony from her classmates, the court said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS