Taiwanese playboy Justin Lee handed 80-year prison term for rape
High Court slaps wealthy scion with harshest sentence in years for sexually assaulting and taping 20 women
In a rare decision, Taiwan’s High Court on Tuesday sentenced socialite Justin Lee, heir to one of the island’s richest men, to 79 years and seven months in prison for raping and illegally making sex tapes of 20 women.
The court meted out the harshest punishment for such crimes in recent years based on the number of counts of sexual assault and filming without consent.
However, Lee, the son of former Yuanta Financial Holding board member Lee Yue-chang, only needs to serve 30 years behind bars as it is the maximum punishment for these charges by law, court officials said.
”The defendant was found guilty of multiple sexual assaults and filming sex tapes without consent from others,” the high court said in a verdict.
”The defendant must compensate a total of NT$27.75 million (HK$7.2 million) to the victims,” it said.
A dejected and grim-faced Lee, 29, who has been detained since he was arrested in August 2012, appeared to choke when he heard the decision, local television reports said.
The ruling came as a shock to Lee’s family as it dwarfed the Taipei district court’s decision last September to hand him an 18-year, six-month term.
According to the High Court verdict, Lee brought home 14 women, either drunk or unconscious, from nightclubs and other places. Then he sexually assaulted them, taping the acts without their consent.
He also took home another six women and secretly filmed them having sex with him. Police found the explicit video files on his computer and cellphone, and placed him on the wanted list when he refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Lee surrendered to police after 23 days on the run in 2012.
Lee was initially accused of date-raping 34 women, some of whom were models and starlets, starting from the year 2009. All 34 claimed they were victims of Lee, but the high court said there was not enough evidence in the 14 other cases, the court said.
Lee’s lawyer said the socialite’s parents found the ruling unacceptable and would file an appeal before the Supreme Court.
The lawyer said Lee had lost at least 10kg while in detention.
He was previously found guilty by the district court of raping nine women and filming sex acts with 17 women without their consent, of which he was ordered to compensate them NT$14.35 million in total.
