Taichung baseball coach found guilty of sexually assaulting 32 children

Taichung, July 8 (CNA) A Taichung elementary school baseball coach who committed 90 offenses including forcible molestation, sexual assault and filming sexual videos of 32 children over a six-year period has been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 years and 6 months to 8 years and 6 months for the offenses.

The Taichung District Court handed down its verdict on Tuesday, sentencing the coach surnamed Sung (松) to 7 years and 10 months in prison for each of seven counts of sexual assault against minors under the age of 14, according to a statement released by the court.

Sung was also found guilty of 46 offenses of forcible molestation against boys under the age of 14, for each of which, he was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison.

Meanwhile, the district court found him guilty of three separate crimes of opportunistic indecent assault by an adult against a child and sentenced to 1 year and 6 months for each incident.

In addition, Sung was convicted of 34 instances of causing minors to be depicted in electronically generated sex-related content, and was sentenced to prison terms of 7 years and 2 months, 7 years and 6 months, or 8 years and 6 months for each crime.

As there are additional related cases pending, the final cumulative sentence has not yet been determined, according to the district court.

The ruling can be appealed.

The case did not come to light until a parent filed a complaint in October last year.

Although Sung was convicted of molesting three young boys in 2004, because he admitted the offenses and reached settlements with the victims, the judge issued a lenient sentence of two years' imprisonment, suspended for five years.

As a result, Sung served no time and was not placed on the Ministry of Education sexual offenders list, according to court documents.

However, the elementary school in Taichung failed to carry out regular background checks and so were unaware of Sung's record when they hired him as a baseball coach in 2018, in which position he served for six years.

Sung was indicted by the Taichung District Prosecutors Office in March on charges of forcible molestation, forcible sexual intercourse and child sexual exploitation.