Police on Tuesday captured a parolee after he escaped his home by cutting off his electronic tracking bracelet with an electric chainsaw and then allegedly committed a robbery in Taipei.
At about 10pm on Monday, Ou Li-yuan (歐力源), 53, removed the tracking bracelet and drove a car to Taipei, where he allegedly robbed a betel nut stand of NT$6,000, police said.
He headed south on the highway and police caught him driving around Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (岡山) at about 4pm on Tuesday.
Photo copied by Su Fu-nan, Taipei Times
He was transferred yesterday to Taipei and placed in detention.
Under questioning, Ou said he committed the robbery because he had gambling debts of about NT$100,000, police said.
Ou was sentenced to life imprisonment, after being found guilty of robbing a young passenger — he was driving his brother’s taxi — and raping her at knife-point in Taipei in April 1997.
After serving almost 20 years, Ou was paroled in August 2017, on condition that he wear the tracking bracelet and not leave his residence in Hualien between 10pm and 5am each day.
However, prosecutors said that Ou is now likely to serve an additional 25 years in prison.
In other news, police on Tuesday questioned three men in their 20s after a woman was found dead after a party at an apartment in New Taipei’s Banciao District (板橋).
Two roommates, surnamed Hsieh (謝), 28, and Cheng (鄭), 26, decided to hold a party at their apartment on Sunday night, and prepared food, alcohol and “narcotic coffee powder” — a mixture of narcotics and stimulants disguised as coffee, police said.
The pair called a friend surnamed Lee (李), 26, to join them, and then used a messaging app to contact an escort agency, which sent over a hostess surnamed Wu (吳), 31, who arrived at about 1am on Monday, police said.
Wu was found unconscious and not breathing the next day, so Hsieh called an ambulance, but she was pronounced dead after being rushed to a local hospital.
Under questioning, the three men admitted to partying with Wu and ingesting “narcotic coffee powder,” which they dissolved in hot water to drink, police said.
According to police, Hsieh said that Wu felt ill at about 6am on Monday, so he took her to his room to rest, and thought she was sleeping.
They only went in to check on her in the evening, and found her unconscious and not breathing, so they gave her CPR and called 119, Hsieh said.
Police yesterday said that the trio face narcotics charges, as Wu had likely died of an overdose, while Hsieh faces an additional charge of negligence causing death.
The powder’s composition was still being tested and an autopsy was being conducted, police said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by