A 36-year-old man in Nantou County was sentenced to three months in prison and fined for stalking a former colleague and using a drone to locate her residence.
The man, surnamed Chuang (莊), had made advances on the woman while they worked together, but the woman rejected his attempts, the Nantou District Court said in its ruling.
She quit her job last year, but Chuang tracked her and photographed her for months, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung Police Department
Chuang trailed her to her new workplace, and would wait outside her work and residence to give her gifts, which she did not accept, the court said.
Chuang acted against her wishes by following her and taking photographs of her, including when she went shopping, sought medical treatment and picked up her child, which he posted on Facebook, it said, adding that earlier this year, he flew a camera-enabled drone over her home.
The court granted the woman a restraining order, after which Chuang punctured the tires of her vehicle, the court said.
Due to the mental and physical toll of Chuang’s persistent stalking, she quit her job and moved away, it said, adding that she also experienced anxiety and stress, requiring professional counseling.
The court ruled that Chuang had contravened the Stalking and Harassment Prevention Act (跟蹤騷擾防制法) and breached the restraining order.
In civil litigation, the judges ruled that Chuang had infringed on the woman’s right to freedom and health, fining him NT$200,000.
Since the government promulgated the act in June last year, prosecutors and judges have handled hundreds of such cases, many of which have involved eccentric behavior.
Men accounted for vast majority of people found guilty in such cases, with fewer than 10 percent of women, Taichung Police Department data showed.
In most cases, a man continued to pursue a woman who had rejected his advances, with the second main type of case involving former partners refusing to accept a breakup, the data showed.
The Taichung District Court last year handled a case in which a woman surnamed Lin (林) would wait for a colleague outside the hospital where they worked, behavior she continued for five years.
The male doctor had to wait for the act to be promulgated to file a complaint, with the courts finding her guilty and fining her NT$20,000.
In another case, a woman surnamed Chen (陳) in New Taipei City and a man she met online agreed to meet at a motel, but he reportedly left her there and cut off all social media links to her.
Chen later wrote an article alleging that he had humiliated her and sent it to officials at the school he worked at as an assistant professor.
The woman then made more than 20 telephone calls to his university research office and engaged in other types of harassment, judges said.
They fined her NT$100,000 and handed her a suspended two-year sentence.
Prosecutors said the most peculiar case involved a Taiwan Railways Administration conductor surnamed Su (蘇), whose actions to follow a female crew member delayed express trains.
Su was sentenced to 85 days in prison, which was commuted to a fine.
The TRA transferred him to a desk job.
In another case in Nantou County, a man surnamed Chen (陳), 32, was rejected by his former girlfriend and sent text messages threatening her life.
He later threw a homemade explosive at her and continued to harass her after he was released from preventive detention.
He was later handed a 17-month sentence after he attempted to attack her with a knife.
To be convicted under the new anti-stalking law, repeated stalking and harassment must be sexual or gender-related, and target a specific person against their will and sufficiently affecting their daily life.
Actions include trailing, or sending letters or online messages.
In Hsinchu, a high-school student surnamed Chang (張) was fined NT$20,000 for sending a fellow student four text messages asking her to engage in dirty talk, with one of the messages containing a link to a pornographic site.
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