Raphael Lin (林秉樞), a former boyfriend of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜), must serve the full prison sentence he was handed for assault, intimidation, slander and other crimes against former girlfriends, including Kao, the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
Lin’s sentence cannot be commuted to a fine, the office said at a hearing.
In the first ruling in September last year, Lin was found guilty of several offenses and handed a combined two-year and 10-month sentence by the New Taipei City District Court. He must serve an eight-month term for assault, while a two-year and two-month sentence was had initially been commutable to a NT$780,000 (US$24,218) fine.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Prosecutors yesterday said that Lin was a repeat offender, who has shown a pattern of violent assault, intimidation, abusive behavior and sexual offenses against women.
They said that Lin’s prison sentence could not be commuted to a fine.
Lin must serve all of the two-year and two-month prison sentence, but he could apply for early parole on good behavior before its completion, they said.
Prosecutors said Lin had a habit of using violence and intimidation against women.
Despite a prior conviction and probation in a 2020 case, Lin took up the violent and abusive behavior against Kao the following year, prosecutors said.
“If permitted to commute the prison sentence to a fine, it would not compel Lin to reflect and repent, and it could even embolden Lin, therefore he has more likelihood of returning to the same criminal behavior,” prosecutors said.
Kao has requested severe punishment for Lin and a full prison sentence, saying she is speaking up for all female victims of abuse and violence.
According to the ruling in Lin’s first case, he recorded sexually explicit videos and pictures of his former girlfriend without her consent, then threatened to share them online.
Lin also threatened another former girlfriend with death to make her comply with his demands, and slapped her repeatedly in the face and committed other abusive behavior, the court said.
In 2021, Lin and Kao were in a relationship when Lin took Kao’s sexually explicit photos, and used those to threaten her, while instructing his secretary to post messages on social media about Kao, and threatening her to expose “her shameful activities” to the public, according to the court files.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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