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.
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
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
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
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS