Changhua man sentenced to jail for sex with minor

A man in Changhua County has been sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for having sex with a minor, filming the incident and sharing the footage with a friend.

The Changhua District Court convicted the man of having sex with a girl under the age of 14 on at least five occasions and using his cellphone to film the acts, which he said she had consented to.

Court documents showed that the man met the girl while playing an online mobile game.

After developing a relationship with her through the game, he convinced her to film herself nude in February last year before later that same week asking her to meet in person to engage in sex, court documents showed.

Over the following weeks, they met and had sex on five occasions, some of which he filmed and shared with a friend over social media, it said.

Under Article 227 of the Criminal Code, sexual intercourse between a male adult with an underage woman carries a sentence of three to 10 years in prison, while Article 36 of the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例) states that “any person who films or produces any sexual image or video of a child” faces a jail sentence of one to seven years.

The court sentenced the man to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for sex with a minor, which along with sentences for four other offenses led to a combined prison sentence of four years and 10 months.

The case follows widespread criticism of the handling of the prosecution of entertainer Mickey Huang (黃子佼), who has been cleared of sexual assault charges, but received a deferred prosecution and was ordered to pay a NT$1.2 million (US$37,062) fine for possession of sex videos featuring a minor.