The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said it has reopened a sexual assault investigation against a gynecologist at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) after several of his other alleged victims demanded action following an initial dismissal of the case.
Police on Monday detained the man for questioning, and searched his office and residence before releasing him on bail of NT$400,000.
Prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine the investigation’s direction, Chinese-language media reported.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The doctor, who has not been named, was publicly accused of sexual assault two years ago by four women, including a pharmaceutical representative who filed a report after allegedly being drugged and raped at a hotel.
The case was dropped after investigators said that they found messages on the accuser’s Line messaging app account shortly after her purported rape by the doctor that read “Thank you, daddy” and said she had reached home safely.
Security video footage showed that the woman left the hotel neatly dressed and was steady on her feet, investigators said at the time.
Writing in a news release in March last year, Control Yuan member Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容) said an investigation had been launched into National Taiwan University’s refusal to respond to the initial report of sexual misconduct by its faculty member.
An internal investigation carried out later by the university found the pharmaceutical representative’s accusation to be sufficiently credible, she said.
The university late last year fired the professor from its faculty and hospital, a decision the doctor has appealed following the recent dismissal of his case by the authorities.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) on March 24 called a news conference with three of the accusers, saying that the remaining women received notice from the university that their claims had been dismissed and that the doctor could be reinstated.
Collecting evidence from a drug-enabled sexual assault is forensically difficult and the prosecutors’ refusal to press charges is not a reasonable reason for the university to reject the testimony of the remaining accusers, they said.
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