The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by a taekwondo coach convicted of committing sexual assault and taking indecent pictures of underage girls, upholding the High Court’s decision sentencing him to 26 years in prison.
The taekwondo coach, surnamed Lu (呂), was convicted of sexually assaulting and taking indecent pictures of 11 young female students — with the youngest being seven — in his dojo totaling 109 instances in three years since 2019.
Photo: Taipei Times
Lu at first denied committing any of the acts, alleging that he had been wrongly accused because of business disputes, until investigators recovered deleted photographs.
He later admitted to some of the acts, but said he did not do it “so many times.”
During the first trial earlier this year, the New Taipei District Court said that although he apologized to the victims’ parents, he blamed the victims for their conduct and misbehavior, and stressed that his “punishment” had been meted out with the victims’ consent.
The district court said he did not regret his actions, which seriously impacted the victims’ physical and mental health and personal growth.
He was sentenced to 29 years and six months in his first trial for 109 criminal counts, with each carrying more than three years in prison.
The total prison term of more than 300 years is to be run concurrently.
Lu later filed an appeal with the High Court, admitting his guilt for everything he was accused of in hopes of getting a shorter prison term.
The High Court said the victims had been coerced by Lu’s power and status as a coach and were not “seduced or willing” to take the indecent photos.
Lu was sentenced under the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), the High Court said, handing him 26 years in prison.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS