Taiwanese man posing as cop convicted of rape
台灣男子假扮警察強姦得逞
| Claiming to be a cop, perpetrator threatened to arrest woman if she refused to continue sexual transaction
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday (Jan. 20) upheld the three-year and two-month sentence of a lower court for a Nantou County man who had forced a woman to complete a sexual transaction with him by posing as a cop and threatening to arrest her if she refused, Mirror Media reported. According to the Nantou District Court’s sentencing document, the man surnamed Sun (孫) hooked up with a woman online on May 9, 2019, through an app, and they struck a deal to have a sexual transaction on May 11. On that day, Sun drove to pick her up, and they went to a motel. During the intercourse, Sun, 37, suddenly said, “I’m a cop, and I came here to nab you.” He claimed that he had a copy of their online conversation at the police station, Mirror Media reported, citing the document. Sun then proceeded to ask the woman to lower the price for the transaction and said if she agreed, he would delete their conversation after returning to the station, the document said. Upon hearing that, the woman got scared and made it clear that she did not want to continue the transaction. As she was getting dressed and attempted to leave, Sun threatened her by telling her that if she did not continue, he would call his colleagues to arrest her. Believing that Sun was a real cop, she was afraid to resist him as he took her pants off and raped her. After that, the woman reported the incident to police, who quickly arrested Sun and referred him to prosecutors on suspicion of committing sexual offenses. As Sun, who was a factory worker during the day and a part-time Foodpanda deliveryman during the night, confessed to the offense, the district court sentenced him to three years and two months in prison, according to Mirror Media. However, prosecutors appealed the case to the Taiwan High Court’s Taichung Branch Court on the grounds that the sentence was too lenient because the defendant was a repeat raper. Prosecutors said he had committed a similar crime 19 years ago by posing as a cop to threaten a girl at an internet cafe and eventually raped her. During the second trial, Sun said his posing as a cop was just a prank and that he had never thought of using the fake identity to coerce the victim. He added that he had settled with the victim out of court by paying her NT$300,000 (US$10,800), CNA reported. He asked the Taiwan High Court judges to reduce his sentence and give him probation instead. The judges rejected the defendant’s appeal, saying that he did not plead guilty at first and was a repeat sex offender. They lambasted him for seriously damaging the image of police by posing as a cop to commit the crimes, per CNA. The Taiwan High Court ruled that the three-year and two-month sentence given by the Taichung District Court judges was appropriate as they had taken all aspects into consideration. The defendant was not satisfied by the ruling in the second trial, he appealed, and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld the Taiwan High Court’s ruling, per Mirror Media. |
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| George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2022-01-20 |
