The New Taipei City District Court has sentenced a man to five months in jail for allegedly putting rat poison in a water storage tank over a disagreement with a tenant, causing illness and skin rashes to a family.
The man, surnamed Hung (洪), can pay a fine in lieu of jail time, the court said.
The incident took place in August 2020, when building resident Yang (楊) and his family experienced swelling, red skin, rashes and other conditions, the ruling said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The family also said that the water had an odd smell and found green-blue particles floating inside their water storage tank, it said.
Yang reported the incident to police, and lab testing found that the particles contained the ingredients of rat poison.
About a week later, Hung attempted to poison the water again, but was unable to due to a lock, the ruling said.
Yang’s wife saw Hung on the camera feed and ran to the roof to confront him, and caught him pouring the contents of a plastic bottle over the side of the building, it said.
Police gathered some of the discarded contents, which lab tests confirmed to contain the components of rat poison, it said.
At a hearing, Hung said he had poisoned the tank over a personal dispute with Yang, who had served as the chairman of the building’s management committee.
Hung said he had disagreements and filed complaints over the use of public space in the building, and tried to resolve the problems with Yang, but did not get the results he wanted.
He said he also resented that Yang “monopolized” the chairman position for more than two decades.
Hung said that he had put “fertilizer materials” into the tank to “teach a lesson” to Yang.
The court found Hung guilty of “causing injury to others,” based on surveillance camera footage, eyewitness testimony, police statements and firsthand accounts from police.
The court rejected prosecutors’ charge of “placing poisonous or harmful substances in water for public use,” which carried a more severe punishment, as the tank was privately owned and not a communal water source for the whole building, the ruling said.
Yang’s daughter-in-law said that the sentence was too lenient and the family would consider appealing the ruling.
“The incident made all six members of our family sick. We still suffer from the fear that the water tank could be contaminated by rat poison,” she 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
RSS