A former preschool teacher has been handed a 28-year prison sentence after he was found guilty of more than 200 sexual offences against children, in a case which has led to widespread uproar in Taiwan.
The Taipei District Court judge found a 30-year-old man, identified as Mao, guilty of committing “vicious” crimes because of which six children suffered “severe physical and mental trauma”. All the children were under the age of seven.
Anger has been brewing among the citizens of the island over the crimes committed by the former preschool teacher and the way it was earlier handled by the authorities.
A lot of people have underlined that after an initial report regarding his crimes emerged in 2022, Mao did not face suspension because of this more children became his victims.
In July 2023, the police arrested Mao after complaints were filed by more parents against the kindergarten teacher.
“If the local government could have done a better job in 2022, there wouldn’t be the tragedy in 2023,” MP Lin Yueh-chin was quoted as saying by media outlets.
Parents speak against lack of transparency in Mao’s child sexual abuse case
The parents said that there was a lack of transparency in the investigation of the case, adding that they were not given access to the investigation reports and the CCTV footage.
Last year, Mao faced suspension and was banned from teaching. The license of the kindergarten teacher was also revoked by the Taiwanese authorities.
Mao, on Friday (August 16), was convicted of multiple crimes, which included forcing children to film sexually explicit videos and raping them.
According to the documents submitted in the court, the crimes were committed by Mao when he was working at a private kindergarten in Taipei.
The teacher has a college degree in social work and joined the pre-school in September 2021.
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The 30-year-old Mao was given the duties of assisting in teaching, managing CCTV, supervising lunch breaks as well as picking up and dropping off the children.
“The number of victims was large, the crime was vicious, the victims suffered severe physical and mental trauma, and the accused’s attitude after committing the crimes was awful,” said the judge.
The details of the case had left the people horrified after the media started exposing it earlier this year.
The first complaint was made against the teacher in July 2022. However, the investigation in the case was dropped after the authorities failed to find any evidence.
(With inputs from agencies)