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.
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