Ms. Cai, who runs a restaurant in Taichung, learned that after a female customer brought her 4-year-old son to dine, she used a disposable cup to catch the boy’s urine in public due to the lack of a restroom, and then left the cup of urine on the table before leaving. Upset by this, Cai checked the surveillance footage, took a screenshot, and posted it online. As a result, she was sued. During the investigation, prosecutors unexpectedly discovered that a friend at the same table, surnamed Lin, had also filmed the boy urinating. The court sentenced both Cai and Lin to 6 months for distributing and filming child sexual images, suspended for 3 years, and the verdict is appealable.
According to United Daily News on the 2nd, prosecutors found that on September 15, 2024, the female customer brought her 4-year-old son to dine at the restaurant. Because the boy urgently needed to urinate and there was no restroom, the woman publicly used her own disposable cup to catch the child’s urine, then left the whole cup on the restaurant table.
At that moment, their friend Lin, who was dining with them, remembered that the day before, as he was driving them, the boy had urinated directly in his car. To question whether this was deliberate, he filmed a video of the woman using a disposable cup to catch the boy’s urine with his phone.
Later, after being notified by staff, restaurant owner Ms. Cai—angry about the woman’s actions—reviewed the surveillance footage and posted screenshots showing the boy urinating to Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. The parents discovered this and reported it to the police.
● The boy’s face was pixelated
During questioning, Ms. Cai denied the crime. Her defense argued that the post to Threads had the boy’s face pixelated, and that as the restaurant manager, Cai was emotional upon seeing the urination and urine cup left on the table, and had no criminal intent. Mr. Lin said the matter was not closely related to him; he only filmed it to discuss with the boy’s parent because the boy had urinated in his car the day before, and deleted the footage afterward.
During a hearing at the Taichung District Court, Cai and Lin eventually admitted their actions, reached a settlement and paid compensation, and apologized in court. Both were charged under the Act for the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, which carries a prison sentence of one to seven years.
The court considered that Cai and Lin had acted without careful thought, but their subjective intent was different from that of perverts or those committing crimes in bizarre ways. Taking all circumstances into account, and granting leniency according to Article 59 of the Criminal Code, the court reduced their sentences, and sentenced them to six months for distributing and filming child sexual images, suspended for three years.