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.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS