A baseball coach at a Taichung elementary school has been fired and an investigation launched over the alleged molestation of dozens of children under his care, local authorities said yesterday.
The allegations were made public at a news conference yesterday morning attended by Taichung City Councilor Chiang Ho-shu (江和樹) and two mothers of children at the school.
Parents had noticed changes in their children’s behavior, and, after asking about it, learned that they had allegedly been touched by the coach of their school baseball team, Chiang said.
Photo: CNA
The parents notified the school and Taichung police, he said.
Taichung police opened an investigation into the matter, he said.
After being summoned for questioning, the coach attempted to commit suicide, Chiang said.
After arresting the coach, police allegedly found videos of a sexually explicit nature on his phone and identified at least 25 children in them — from second to sixth grade — as well as some who are now in junior-high school, Chiang said.
As the coach had been at the school for six years, he might have targeted as many as 100 children, Chiang said.
The coach was convicted of forced indecency in 2012 and given a five-year suspended sentence, Chiang said.
He was hired by the school in 2019, he added.
“How defective is the Education Bureau’s hiring process that it was unable to screen out a sexual predator?” Chiang asked.
One of the mothers described the horror of having to identify her child in one of the videos to police.
“Every day we sent him to school. It is like we were personally delivering him to hell,” she said.
Taichung Bureau of Education Director Chiang Woei-min (蔣偉民) said that the school had immediately suspended the coach after being contacted by the parents on Oct. 26.
He was then fired on Nov. 11, he said.
When the school hired the coach in 2019, it checked the Ministry of Education’s database of people prohibited from working in education and did not find any red flags, he said.
However, the Ministry of Justice uploaded new records to the system in 2021, and it is still being determined whether the school conducted regular follow-up checks via the database as is legally required, Chiang Woei-min said.
The Taichung Police Department said the criminal record checks it issues typically do not include information on suspended sentences, as long as the person did not violate the terms of their probation.
At a city council meeting, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said the coach is in the custody of prosecutors, who have filed a legal motion to hold him in detention incommunicado as the investigation proceeds.
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