Members of the Bamboo Union Hongren Chapter in Taiwan, including a man surnamed Chen, were involved in coercing an underage girl into prostitution. After the girl attempted to escape but was caught, Chen and others detained her, burned her with cigarette butts, and even forced her to ingest them as a form of abuse. The New Taipei District Court recently found Chen guilty of 17 crimes, with an accumulated sentence totaling 152 years and 6 months.
According to the verdict, Mr. Chen usually operated a tattoo parlor in Sanxia, New Taipei. In July 2023, citing the need to repay her 'debt' and cover rent, he coerced an underage girl into sex work. From the daily income of NT$10,000 (about MYR 1300), Chen and a man surnamed Jian took NT$7,000 (about MYR 884.7) and split it, leaving only NT$3,000 (about MYR 379.16) for the girl.
On July 25 of the same year, the girl no longer wished to continue in prostitution. After finishing with a client that day, she escaped with NT$10,000. Upon discovering this, Chen became enraged and instructed others to bring her back to the tattoo shop. Jian and his wife, a woman surnamed Lu, shot the girl with riot guns loaded with BB pellets and glass beads, burned her with cigarette butts and forced her to swallow them, also beating her on the head and slapping her, warning that she could not try to escape again.
The girl was then forced to continue taking clients. In August of that year, unable to endure further abuse, she ran away again, but was quickly captured and brought back by force. Chen, Jian, Lu, and others first tied her to an iron chair and stripped her, then cut her skin with the back of a watermelon knife, beat her with a hot glue stick, and took turns burning her with cigarette butts.
From August 3 to 10, the group continued to detain and abuse the girl, not only beating the back of her head with an aluminum rod and forcing her to drink strong liquor, but also sticking sparklers to her chest and arms and setting them alight, resulting in multiple injuries across her body.
In another incident, due to dissatisfaction that a minor in the organization was staring at his ex-wife's legs, in August 2022, Chen called the boy to the tattoo shop, confronted and beat him in person. Other members used knives to slash his thigh, causing penetrating lacerations and muscle rupture in his right leg. In September of the same year, after being discharged from the hospital, the boy sought to leave the gang. Chen threatened him, demanding he pay NT$500,000 (about MYR 63,200) if he wished to leave, and forced him to sign a promissory note for the amount.
After trial in the New Taipei District Court, the panel of judges stated that Chen and Jian, motivated by money, ignored the girl's refusal to engage in prostitution, violating her health and autonomy, distorting values, and affecting her physical, mental, and personal development, and deserved severe condemnation.
The panel found Chen guilty of 17 crimes, including violating the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act for profit by coercing a minor into sex in exchange for money, aggravated unlawful detention against a minor together with adults, among others, sentencing him to a total of 152 years and 6 months. Jian was convicted of 14 crimes, totaling 135 years and 4 months. Since both are involved in other cases of fraud, drugs, and public endangerment, the prosecutor will file for a final aggregate sentence after all convictions are determined. As for Lu, she was found guilty of two counts of aggravated unlawful detention and sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison. The verdict may be appealed.