Taiwan jails kindergarten teacher over 'vicious' abuse of children

A kindergarten teacher in Taiwan has been sentenced to 28 years in jail for more than 200 sexual offences against children, in a case that has seen widespread rage across the island.

The Taipei District Court judge said the man - named as Mao by the court - committed "vicious" crimes which resulted in "severe physical and mental trauma" to six children, who were all under seven.

The case has been in the spotlight for weeks as anger grew over the scale of Mao's crimes and the authorities' initial handling of them.

Many pointed out that Mao was not suspended after an initial report in 2022, which potentially resulted in more children becoming victims.

Warning: Some readers may find the details of this report upsetting

He was arrested in July 2023 after more parents filed complaints against him.

"If the local government could have done a better job in 2022, there wouldn't be the tragedy in 2023," MP Lin Yueh-chin says.

The parents also complained about a lack of transparency during the investigation process, saying they had been denied access to the CCTV footage and the investigation reports.

Mao was suspended and barred from teaching last year. The kindergarten's license was also revoked.

On Friday, Mao was convicted of a series of crimes - including rape and forcing children to take sexually explicit videos.

Investigations are ongoing into a number of other allegations made by parents.

According to court documents, Mao committed the crimes while working at a private kindergarten in the capital, Taipei.

The 30-year-old, who holds a college degree in social work, had been working at the pre-school since September 2021.

He was in charge of managing CCTV, assisting in teaching, picking up and dropping off the children and supervising during lunch breaks.

"The number of victims was large, the crime was vicious, the victims suffered severe physical and mental trauma, and the accused's attitude after committing the crimes was awful," the judge said.

The public were horrified by the details exposed by the media early this year.

The first complaint against Mao reportedly dates back to July 2022. But the case was dropped after an investigation by Taipei city's education investigation and prosecutors failed to find any evidence.

Despite warnings in multiple parent message groups, it wasn't until a year later that more parents reported him to the police.

The full extent of his crimes was only revealed after relatives asked for the confiscation of Mao's phone, according to Legislator Lin Yueh-chin, who has been supporting the parents with their legal cases. Authorities later found more than 600 private videos of children.

Taipei's Mayor, Chiang Wan-an apologised to the public in July.