A convicted murderer from Taichung known as the “White Rose Killer” has been found guilty of contravening the Stalking and Harassment Prevention Act (跟蹤騷擾防制法), after writing repeated love letters to his probation officer.
The Taichung District Court last week ruled that Liang Yu-shan (梁又山), 52, had caused fear, anxiety and mental suffering by harassing his probation officer.
The court sentenced him to four months in prison, which can be commuted to a fine.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of the Interior
Liang was found guilty of stabbing his girlfriend, surnamed Chang (張), to death 15 years ago, and leaving her corpse on Taichung’s Dadu Mountain (大肚山).
Investigators found that Liang drove Chang to a lookout point on the mountain in July 2008. They argued and Liang stabbed her to death with a fruit knife. He hid her body in bushes.
Liang told the court he had returned a week later to place a white rose next to Chang’s corpse as a gesture of regret and remembrance.
“It was a final gift for my girlfriend, [showing] that I regretted committing the crime,” Liang said.
In Taiwanese folk belief, the souls of the dead wander around and return to site of their death on the seventh day, when it is common tradition to conduct a ritual for the deceased.
Chang’s body was discovered by a passerby that same day, and the white rose became key evidence linking Liang to his girlfriend’s murder, news reports said at the time.
Liang was sentenced to 16 years in prison, of which he served 12. He received early parole for good behavior and was released in July 2020.
He began to write love letters to his probation officer in 2021, prosecutors said last week.
Liang continually told his counselors and employment advisers of his infatuation with her, even though she had clearly rejected him, prosecutors said, adding that she had told her colleagues of the fear and stress she was under.
Prosecutors arranged for other probation officers to take over, but Liang persisted in sending more love letters, they said.
Prosecutors issued a warning in April 2022, forbidding Liang from contacting the parole officer, but he wrote four more love letters over the next eight days, they said.
A second warning was issued the following month, but he was not deterred, and the parole officer filed a judicial complaint, saying he was contravening the Stalking and Harassment Prevention Act, prosecutors said.
Judges ruled that Liang could not control own emotions and had disregarded the law, causing the parole officer much stress, and affecting her work and social activities.
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