The Control Yuan on Wednesday censured the New Taipei City Government for lapses in oversight after the city failed to prevent a sex offender from running a go class where he was found guilty of molesting 12 children.
The man, surnamed Lee (李), is in custody and is awaiting a retrial after the Supreme Court last month returned the case to the High Court, which in October last year handed him a 21-year prison sentence for molesting 12 children at an unlicensed go class.
Lee’s criminal history only came to light when the New Taipei City District Court sentenced him to 22 years in March last year.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
He was previously imprisoned in 2010 for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old and another person. After being released in 2014, he underwent four years of mandated rehabilitation that ended in 2018.
These revelations prompted a Control Yuan investigation into the city government.
The New Taipei City Government was negligent in its community oversight and risk evaluation of sex offenders, as well as in its interdepartmental coordination to prevent further offenses, said the Control Yuan report, which was conducted by members Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), Yeh Ta-hua (葉大華) and Chang Chu-fang (張菊芳).
Lee began illegally operating the go class in Tucheng District (土城) in 2019, while still on a government monitoring list that required police to conduct regular visits until June 2021, the report said.
New Taipei City authorities remained oblivious to Lee’s behavior until parents alerted the city authorities in August 2024, it said.
The Tucheng Police Precinct had no records of visits to Lee’s residence after March 21, 2021, the Control Yuan said, adding that Lee began molesting students from April 2021.
The Control Yuan also found flaws in the city government’s reporting mechanism, which subjected the victims and their parents to a 13-hour process of going to police stations, hospitals, and the Women and Children Protection Brigade to recount their experiences multiple times.
The city government said that its education department and police conducted an inspection of Lee’s cram school the day after receiving reports in 2024, seized evidence, imposed a fine and ordered it to suspend operations.
An official with the city’s Social Welfare Department, which oversees the monitoring of released sex offenders, said that once the statutory monitoring period ends, they have no legal authority to take further action.
It was not until a 2023 amendment to the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法) that authorities were authorized to resume intervention measures if they determine there is a risk of reoffense, the official added.
The legislation also mandates psychological treatment and counseling, and introduces electronic monitoring, the official said, adding that these measures improve supervision of sex offenders.
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