A seven-year prison term is being sought for a man who allegedly sexually assaulted a drunk woman in a concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Oct. 9, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The office said it had concluded its investigation and the suspect, surnamed Chiu (邱), was indicted on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency.
The man was arrested on the afternoon of Oct. 9 after police received a report that he had dragged a seemingly intoxicated woman, who was reportedly a visitor from Hong Kong, to a wall in the station’s main hall and raped her, the Railway Police Bureau said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The man reportedly knew the woman and they had been drinking with acquaintances in the eastern section of the train station concourse, prosecutors said.
After the woman’s companions left, she collapsed at 3:22pm, prosecutors said.
Chiu dragged the woman from the main concourse to a quiet corner of the station, where he assaulted her against the wall for 10 minutes in public view, prosecutors said.
Officers from the bureau arrived at the scene at 3:37pm and arrested Chiu, the office said.
Police identified him as a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft and transferred him to the prosecutors’ office to serve his unserved six-month sentence, it said.
Footage recorded by several witnesses were provided to the police, it added.
Chiu clearly saw that the woman was intoxicated and took advantage of her impaired condition, knowing that she was unable to reject his advances, it said.
Prosecutors said they requested a seven-year sentence due to Chiu’s poor attitude after the incident and to serve as a warning to others.
Chiu initially confessed to the assault during questioning, but recanted his confession during the investigation, they said.
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