Six men were yesterday sentenced to between 1.5 years and 12 years in prison for tricking or blackmailing girls into filming sexually explicit pictures and videos, and then selling them online.
According to the indictment by Taichung prosecutors, a 35-year-old man surnamed Pan (潘) began soliciting sexually explicit photos from girls on Instagram in 2021 using fraud and threats.
Pan then uploaded the images to a Telegram channel he created, and sold or traded them with other users, in a manner apparently modeled on South Korea’s “Nth room” case, prosecutors said.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Later, Pan enlisted five other men to help him: a 37-year-old beef noodle soup store owner surnamed Chen (陳), and others surnamed Chang (張), Liu (劉), Su (蘇) and Lee (李).
The group victimized 86 girls aged nine to 17 from across Taiwan, earning about NT$8 million (US$244,888) in illicit profits, according to the indictment.
Chen, in particular, was found to have recruited girls by promising them money or iPhones in return. After obtaining their images, Chen blackmailed the girls into sending more by threatening to publish images if they refused, prosecutors said.
The crime ring was ultimately busted based on information provided by the operator of another child pornography chat group on Telegram, who was arrested in late 2022.
Following an investigation, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Pan and the five other suspects in December last year for violations of the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例), and the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例).
The Taichung District Court on Thursday last week found all six men guilty, sentencing Pan to six years in prison, Chen to 12 years, Liu to 10 years, Chang to three years, Lee to 8.5 years. Su was sentenced to to 1.5 years in prison, suspended for four years.
The sentences are subject to appeal.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS