A Taichung man who was convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian university student has lost his appeal and must serve a prison sentence of five years and six months.
The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), who worked as an Uber driver, had appealed to the High Court and the Supreme Court.
The judges on Monday upheld the guilty verdict.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
The Indonesian student, who was enrolled at a university in Taichung, had used the Uber taxi service late one night in September 2021 to get a ride back to her university dormitory, the ruling said.
Tseng arrived as her ride, noted the passenger was a foreigner and started talking to her, asking if she had gone up the hill before for a night view of the city and offering to take her, it said.
She refused, but Tseng persisted in asking her questions, the ruling said.
“Please accompany me to see the night view,” Tseng was quoted as saying. “Come with me, it will only take five minutes, then I will drive you to the school dormitory.”
The student was worried that if she did not consent, the driver might not take her home and she could be in danger, the testimony said.
Tseng then pressed “completed the ride” on the Uber app and turned it off, before driving her up a hill to a secluded spot with no street lighting, the ruling said.
He told her to get out of the car to see the city’s night view and hugged her, it said.
The student said she was alone and very scared, and that it was too dark to see the road to escape.
If she attempted to run away, her life could be at risk, she added.
After the hug, the driver asked her to get back into the car and to sit on the driver’s side seat, the ruling said.
Tseng then forced himself upon her, and when he was finished, he drove her to the university dormitory, the court filing said.
Upon her return, the student told her boyfriend what happened and they went to a local police station to file a report.
However, Tseng’s lawyer said that the medical examination failed to find his DNA inside her, as the victim had washed herself after getting home.
The student was the one who initiated and asked Tseng to show her the night view, Tseng’s lawyers said during the first and second rulings.
She tried to steal his money and took his money pouch, so he tried to get it back by moving his hands into her skirt, they said, adding that he did not intend to sexually assault her.
Judges in earlier rulings, said that Tseng had turned off the Uber app during the ride and therefore his intentions were bad.
Shutting down the app would also stop any recording, so there would be no evidence of the incident, the judges said.
The student had no reason to ask a stranger to go up the hill and then have intimate physical contact, they added.
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