A man was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday after a court found him guilty of suffocating his five-year-old son to death while the child slept in May last year.
The defendant, surnamed Chien (簡), was given a life sentence and stripped of his civil rights for life, according to Presiding Judge Liu Kuei-king (劉桂金). The ruling can be appealed.
In reaching the verdict, the six citizen judges and three professional judges considered the long-term stress Chien faced due to financial instability and frequent altercations with his wife and weighed that against the gravity of the crime and his potential for rehabilitation, Liu said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chien’s wife, surnamed Chang (張), and her brother asked the court to sentence Chien to death, Liu said.
According to the court, Chien and Chang separated in April last year and agreed that Chang would take primary care of their son, although the boy sometimes spent time with his father in Keelung with Chang’s consent.
During one of those stays, Chien suffocated the five-year-old to death with a pillow while he slept, according to the court.
Chien said he harbored hatred toward Chang, who sought a divorce, and chose to kill their son because she was going to take him away, Liu said.
During the trial, Chien said he was drinking during the incident, but the court said that he provided coherent answers during police questioning, proving he was not significantly impaired, Liu said.
Separately, Tainan prosecutors on Friday charged three people with fatal abuse of a five-month-old infant who was found in a drainage canal in December, including the child’s parents and a woman who lived with them.
Tainan District Court ordered the father, surnamed Fang (方), and the woman surnamed Ling (凌) to remain in custody.
The two have been detained since Dec. 18 last year, after police found the infant’s body and arrested three suspects, including the mother, surnamed Lin (林).
Fang and Ling are suspected of committing serious offenses, including child abuse resulting in death and abandonment of a corpse, which carries a minimum prison sentence of five years, according to the court.
Given their suspected involvement and risk of fleeing or collusion, Fang and Ling have been remanded in custody without visitation rights, the court said.
The child was born in July and lived at a residence shared by the three suspects, prosecutors said.
The family was on a city government watch list for vulnerable households and the case came to light after government workers responsible for tracking the family’s welfare reported the infant missing, prosecutors said.
The child’s body was found wrapped in plastic bags in a drainage canal.
An autopsy had determined that the infant sustained multiple physical injuries and had been dead for several days before being found, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors alleged the three suspects physically abused the infant multiple times, including striking his head against a wall prior to death in early November.
Lin and Ling then allegedly wrapped the child in plastic bags after which Fang and Ling transported the body to the drainage canal, prosecutors said.
Lin is under a court order prohibiting her from moving.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS