Piano teacher convicted of sex offences

Crimes occurred at studio over 20-year period

A highly regarded, longtime piano teacher in Vancouver has been convicted of sex offences against five of his former female students.

On Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray found Yung Ping David Chen, 68, guilty of five counts of sexual assault, three counts of sexual interference and one count of sexual exploitation.

During or shortly after lessons in Chen’s piano studio in South Vancouver, the accused touched all of his victims on their breasts and kissed two of them as well.

The victims, two of whom are now piano teachers themselves, ranged in age from 10 years old to about 19 at the time of the offences, which occurred over a 20-year period.

Police launched an investigation after one of the victims, who can only be identified by the initials M.Y. due to a publication ban, reported that Chen had stood behind her during a lesson, reached under her armpits and touched one of her breasts. She was 11 years old at the time.

Now 15, the girl — who testified by video link from outside the courtroom — told the judge that as he was molesting her, Chen would say he was counting the beat to the music.

M.Y. said that at first she thought it was an accident, but then he kept doing it. She didn’t tell her mother at first because she didn’t know how, and her mom kept saying how nice Chen was.

“She never told him to stop because she was scared he would hurt her,” Justice Murray said in her reasons for judgment.

“On one occasion, he kissed her three times and said, ‘ Good job.’ She testified this made her feel weird and awkward.”

After the kisses, M.Y. told her mother about what had happened and her mom contacted police, who started contacting other students of Chen.

The accused’s lawyer argued that M.Y. had an active imagination and had wrongly believed that Chen had a firearm and wanted to beat her up, but the judge noted that the victim readily agreed she had no basis for thinking those things.

Murray added that the girl had no motive to lie and was a credible and reliable witness.

Chen, who described himself as an old-school Chinese teacher who imposed his ideas on his students and sometimes yelled at them, testified in his own defence.

He admitted touching the students during the lessons to correct their posture but denied ever intentionally touching their breasts.

But the judge, noting that Chen was confrontational during crossexamination and made derogatory comments about the complainants, said Chen’s explanations did not make sense.

“Mr. Chen just changed and added to his story when he needed to. All in all, I find Mr. Chen’s evidence contrived and implausible and I don’t believe it.”

Chen, who shook his head several times in apparent disbelief as the verdict was read out, is to return to court Feb. 22 to fix a date for sentencing.