A Taichung elementary school baseball coach who was found guilty of 90 offenses, including forcible molestation, sexual assault and filming sexual videos of 32 children over a six-year period, was yesterday sentenced to multiple prison terms.
The Taichung District Court sentenced the coach, surnamed Sung (松), to seven years and 10 months in prison for each of seven counts of sexual assault against a minor under the age of 14, the court said in a statement.
Sung was also found guilty of 46 offenses of forcible molestation of a minor under the age of 14, each of which he was sentenced to three years and six months in prison, the court said.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
He was also found guilty of three separate crimes of opportunistic indecent assault by an adult against a child and sentenced to one year and six months for each incident, it said.
Sung was convicted of 34 instances of causing minors to be depicted in electronically generated sex-related content, and was sentenced to prison terms of seven years and two months, seven years and six months or eight years and six months for each crime, it said.
As there are pending lawsuits related to the case, the final cumulative sentence has not yet been determined, the court said.
The ruling can be appealed.
The case did not come to light until a parent filed a complaint in October last year.
Although Sung was convicted of molesting three young boys in 2004, the judge sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for five years, because he had admitted to the offenses and reached settlements with the victims, court documents showed.
As a result, Sung served no time and was not placed on the Ministry of Education's sexual offenders list, the documents showed.
The Taichung elementary school failed to carry out regular background checks and so was unaware of Sung's record when it hired him as a baseball coach in 2018. He served in the position for six years.
In March, the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office charged Sung with forcible molestation, forcible sexual intercourse and child sexual exploitation.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS