The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a guilty verdict and prison sentence for the owner of an English school who was found to have abused a young boy attending its kindergarten and daycare center in 2014.
The Supreme Court said it turned down an appeal by the owner, a woman surnamed Lin (林), and upheld the High Court’s 28-month jail term issued in February last year.
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
A lower court convicted Lin and two others, surnamed Liu (劉) and Chin (金), of plunging the head of the boy, surnamed Liang (梁), into a bucket of water or a pond in which children played, causing him to choke, the Supreme Court said.
They also allegedly forced him to do split jumps if he could not hold a squatting position long enough, had him take his clothes off in winter and subjected him to a cold shower, and prohibited him from drinking water or going to the bathroom after drinking water, the court said.
Lin allegedly gave the child hot and sour soup that had gone bad or was too spicy, hit his body and head using a paddle shaped like a small hand, and made him do homework on his hands and knees, resulting in physical injuries, it said.
Although Liang tried to tell his mother about the abuse, she did not believe him because of the excuses Lin gave, the ruling said.
After seeing a news report about other kids being mistreated at the same school in November 2014, the child spoke out, it said.
That led Liang’s parents to file a criminal complaint against Lin, Liu and Chin with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Prosecutors charged Lin with child abuse, and the Taipei District Court sentenced her to three years and 10 months in jail, which she appealed.
The High Court reduced the sentence to 28 months on the grounds that Lin had agreed to pay the family compensation, although Lin and the family have not agreed on an amount.
The Taipei District Court gave Liu a six-month sentence, commutable to a fine, and Chin a six-month sentence, commutable to a fine and suspended for four years, and also required Chin to perform 90 hours of community service.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai