The Taoyuan District Court has approved a request by prosecutors to detain a young man suspected of attempting to sexually assault a girl under the age of 14 in broad daylight on Sunday.
Saying the man is suspected of engaging in aggravated forced obscenity and attempted sexual assault, prosecutors on Monday filed a motion to have him detained.
The court approved the request on Tuesday, saying it issued the order given the severity of the harm allegedly caused by the defendant’s behavior.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
The court said that while it did not see evidence suggesting that releasing the defendant would pose a risk of witness tampering, it felt there was a legitimate concern about repeat offenses. However, it did not rule that the suspect should be held incommunicado.
If found guilty, the suspect, who just turned 18, could face at least five years in jail, prosecutors said, but did not offer specifics about the evidence they had collected.
The incident, which occurred in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山), surfaced after the victim’s parents posted a video online showing her screaming for help as a man, who reportedly has a history of mental illness, grabbed her in a covered walkway in broad daylight.
The parents said their daughter screamed for help for 27 seconds before a passerby rescued her and took her to the police station to report the matter.
In a phone interview with the media on Monday, the girl’s mother said her daughter was on her way to meet a classmate and followed a route she had taken alone two or three times before.
Her daughter unexpectedly encountered the man, who demanded in a harsh tone that she come closer, prompting the girl to sense danger and quickly call for help, the mother said.
“A person who commits an obscene act against a male or female against their will through the use of violence, threats, intimidation, or hypnosis shall be sentenced to imprisonment of not less than six months, but not more than five years,” Article 224 of the Criminal Code says.
Additional reporting by Yu Jui-jen and Cheng Su-ting
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