Yilan: The Yilan District Court recently sentenced the owner of a private Taoist temple in Yilan to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting a female devotee.
According to Focus Taiwan, the verdict issued on May 27 found the temple's owner, Huang Kuo-ching, guilty of 39 counts of sexual assault committed between December 2020 and November 2023. Huang, who founded the private Taoist temple in 2015, also served as its shaman.
The unnamed victim, suffering from long-term emotional and mental stress, was referred to Huang's temple in 2015 by one of her husband's coworkers. The coworker recommended the temple as a treatment option. The court noted that due to the victim's susceptibility to superstition, Huang convinced her she was haunted by evil spirits and affected by terrible karma, necessitating various Taoist shamanistic rituals for healing.
In 2016, the woman was sexually harassed for the first time at a massage parlor owned by Huang. Following an accident in 2020, she sought treatment for a neck injury, during which Huang suggested that her spiritual condition required more physically invasive rituals. Despite her husband's dismay, who accompanied her, Huang manipulated the woman into performing oral sex later that year, marking the beginning of a series of sexual assaults across Yilan and Yunlin counties and other parts of Taiwan.
After enduring nearly four years of abuse, the victim reported Huang to the police. During the trial, Huang pleaded not guilty, claiming the victim's husband had convinced her to agree to "sexual treatment." However, the panel of judges dismissed Huang's defense, ruling that the victim's gullibility made the sexual acts non-consensual.
The court concluded that Huang exploited the woman's superstitions to coerce her into self-destructive decisions. The evidence, including the victim's written records and diaries, led to Huang's conviction on 39 counts of sexual assault, each carrying a 3.5-year prison sentence. The court sentenced Huang to a total of 25 years in prison, with the verdict open to appeal.