The Taipei High Court yesterday ruled that Chen Po-chien (陳伯謙) must pay NT$14.01 million (US$496,087) in compensation and funeral expenses over the 2018 murder of a woman at the Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei.
Chen, now 40, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of rape and murder in the first ruling by the Taipei District Court in August 2019.
However, the High Court upheld the murder conviction in April last year, but reduced the sentence to life in prison, citing Chen’s turning himself in and cooperating with the investigation.
Chief Judge Huang Pei-chen (黃珮禎) said that evidence and witness testimony showed that Chen raped the woman, a 30-year-old surnamed Kao (高), before strangling her to death and cutting the body into 13 pieces, which he dumped in Yangmingshan Park.
The High Court upheld Chen’s convictions for rape, murder, abandonment of a corpse and related charges, saying that he was in control of his actions, which meant Kao’s family is entitled to seek compensation.
Chen had shown no remorse for the crime, which caused suffering for Kao’s parents and other family members, the court said.
Recordings made at a visiting room at a detention center during the trial at the Taipei District Court showed that Chen had a flippant attitude, displaying no guilt or compassion for the victim, it said.
In a conversation with visitor, Chen spoke casually about collecting newspaper clippings from reports about his case and plans to write a book, Huang said.
“A book would earn me a lot of money, as it should be a hot seller — the confessions of a perverted murderer,” Chen was quoted as saying in the recording.
“We are all still saddened by the murder of our daughter,” Kao’s father said. “Even with the court ruling that he has to pay this amount, we do not have any joy.”
The case is still not finalized, as the Supreme Court has ordered the High Court to conduct a retrial after it deemed that there might be errors in its finding that Chen had turned himself in and cooperated with the investigation.
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