Excerpts from Statements｜Systemic Failures in Support Networks for Major Child Sexual Indecency Cases: Is It Really Just a Matter of Insufficient Staff Training? ｜Joint Statement Press Conference by Humanistic Education Foundation, Judicial Reform Foundation, and Garden of Hope Foundation

Full Press Release of the Press Conference

Parents of Victim Children

The children did nothing wrong, yet they were trampled upon when they needed support. They were treated as a nuisance, brushed off, and looked down upon.

I am the father of two victim children. After the incident occurred, we naively thought we could find peace once we reported the case and entered court proceedings, but we encountered apathy and dereliction of duty every step of the way—unclear police procedures, obstructive hospital forensic examinations, social workers lacking empathy and professionalism, school counseling sweeping the matter under the rug, the court leaking personal information, and even a prosecutor depriving our lawyer of the right to accompany us into the interrogation room and refusing to indict based on facts of the crime that were uncaptured by surveillance cameras but admitted to by the perpetrator.

The children suffered innocently, only to be repeatedly re-traumatized within the system. We are stepping forward not to assign blame, but in the hope that society will confront this systemic dysfunction, stop treating this case as an isolated anomaly, and genuinely listen to the feelings of the victims.

I also earnestly urge everyone to pay attention to the New Taipei City Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center. If the caseload is truly overwhelming, please allocate adequate resources instead of allowing social workers to linger at the bare minimum standard of "as long as it's not illegal," failing to provide even the most basic empathy and support. Please also pay attention to the judicial handling of child sexual crime victims, and enable prosecutors to help consolidate the testimony of vulnerable child witnesses. Do not let prosecutors become accomplices to perpetrators by making prejudgments and directly excluding evidence favorable to the victims. May our voices today exchange for a safer path of protection for future children and families.

Lee Ming-ju ｜ Deputy Executive Director, Judicial Reform Foundation

This case feels like running a marathon orienteering race and getting lost. It's not that the law lacks provisions; rather, the operational details in practice are fragmented. Our first demand is to improve the victim rights notification form, and the second is to enhance the administrative capacity and resource integration of the Association for Victims Support.

This press conference aims to improve the situation where victims seeking help are sent running around in circles and getting lost. We found that many problems do not involve amending laws at all; therefore, our two demands are very simple: revise or establish guidelines.

The first is directed at pre-trial rights notification. In particular, this case witnessed a situation where a lawyer was prevented by the prosecutor from accompanying the victim, and this prosecutor was a trained sexual assault specialist—not someone who made this decision by chance, which means other cases will encounter this too. While parents communicating more beforehand and allowing child victims to prepare pre-trial is acceptable, even lawyers being barred from accompanying them is a practice that likely requires reconsideration. Aside from investigating the practice regarding lawyers, our other demand is very straightforward: clearly state on the rights notification form that matters and procedures for the day must be confirmed with the prosecutor prior to the hearing.

The second is targeted at the Association for Victims Support. Last month, the Judicial Reform Foundation released an observation report on the Association for Victims Support one year after the implementation of the new law, continuing to supervise the association in enhancing its effectiveness. However, in this case, there were many very basic administrative oversights, the information was chaotic, and there was even unfriendliness arising from "division of rights and responsibilities among agencies during network cooperation, even though the law itself is fine." For example, New Taipei's current systemic practice requires parties to be explicitly rejected by the Legal Aid Foundation before they can turn to the Association for Victims Support—which is a complete waste of time for parties who clearly do not meet the legal aid requirements. We ask the Association for Victims Support to clarify whether this can be improved, and at the very least, we believe one thing should be achievable: clearly drafting the rights notification form and providing it to all network partners.

The petition we compiled for the Control Yuan is very thick, but it specifically emphasizes these two very, very simple points, hoping that the efforts of the victims who stepped forward will not be in vain.

Joanna Feng ｜ Executive Director, Humanistic Education Foundation

The government's failure to act is a crime.

After receiving counseling, a victim cried bitterly, feeling as though they were at fault—this is the profound harm actually inflicted upon children and parents. Child protection rests upon every executing individual, and every handling personnel must possess this awareness.

1. Refusing to expand the investigation, yet expanding the harm

In this case, aside from the various obstacles parents encountered when reporting the case and seeking judicial remedy, one can also observe the extreme passivity of the New Taipei City Government in assisting potential victims. This situation has not occurred solely within the New Taipei City Government; in many child sexual assault incidents where multiple victims have already emerged, competent authorities remain unwilling to proactively clarify the list of all children the predator had contact with, nor do they reach out individually to tell the children and parents: "If you are willing to come forward, the government will help pursue accountability; if you need medical or counseling support, the government will provide it."

The government should utilize expanded investigations to demonstrate a basic attitude. The government has an obligation to let victimized children and families know: the government has a responsibility to help and will not leave victimized children and families to face this alone.

However, up to now, almost every expanded investigation has been forced out by civil society organizations holding press conferences. Clearly, this matter requires regulations to explicitly mandate governmental responsibility. At the same time, we solemnly demand that Mayor Hou You-yi immediately patch the loopholes and that the government ascertain the list of children contacted by this predator and notify them individually for inquiries.

2. Lacking professional counseling is continuous harm

In the counseling provided to victimized children, the government's negligence is also evident. A child was sexually molested and filmed, yet in the face of such severe trauma, an elementary school counseling section chief deliberately misinterpreted the parents' intentions. The parents clearly stated that whole-school or whole-class advocacy should be avoided temporarily to prevent children from self-blaming for failing to refuse or speak up immediately. Yet the counseling section chief actually claimed that the parents were refusing counseling, and consequently refused to provide any counseling resources to the child.

There was also a child who, after receiving counseling at another school, went home crying bitterly, saying that because they didn't speak up, they caused subsequent children to be victimized. Why did this happen? Because when this child received counseling, the counselor played an advocacy short film for them, and the core message of the short film was that one must refuse and speak up immediately. How could this possibly be appropriate counseling content for a child who has been sexually assaulted?

If the New Taipei City Government understood the gravity of the situation and was willing to make even slightly proper arrangements, it should have handed the matter over to the Student Counseling and Guidance Center for tier-three counseling in the first instance, rather than delegating it to an inexperienced school. Consequently, the victimized children either encountered a counseling section chief who turned them away or met a counselor lacking proper competencies. This also demonstrates the New Taipei City Government's deeply dismissive attitude toward cases involving so many children subjected to sexual assault.

3. When the government becomes a high wall

The parents' appeals for systemic improvement continue to hit a brick wall to this day. Officials in New Taipei only tell the parents that this is not the government's responsibility and that the government has already done what regulations require, acting as if the city government were the victim being harassed!

The problem is, the government is inactive, and every single link encountered by the parents and victimized children inflicts secondary victimization. How can the government not bear responsibility for this? The parents stepping forward to call for systemic improvements are safeguarding the safety of all our children and ensuring that every victim is not harmed again within the system. We call upon the general public to stand with the parents, demand systemic improvements, and protect our children well!

Wang Shu-fen ｜ Deputy Executive Director, Garden of Hope Foundation

This case is like a magic-revealing mirror—full of loopholes and utterly crude. Grassroots police officers lack sufficient awareness, leading to subsequent procedural chaos. Standardized guidance should be introduced for grassroots police officers to clearly triage case types.

This case is like a magic-revealing mirror—full of loopholes and utterly crude. Grassroots police officers lack awareness, leading to subsequent procedural chaos. Standardized guidance should be introduced for grassroots police officers for clear triage. Forensic examination procedures need optimization; spending five times as much time on administrative waiting leaves ample space and time for optimization. Enhancing competency and capacity. If this case were to be replayed, horizontal communication and integration remain our most criticized failures—unable to strive together toward a single goal. We hold higher professional expectations for working personnel.
 

Fan Yun ｜ Legislator

Contemplating the possibility of comprehensive reform of the child protection system—establishing a dedicated child protection unit, specialized personnel, and social workers providing full-process assistance. Unifying the handling of administrative investigations. Establishing a child worker certification system.

Legislator Fan Yun pointed out that an elementary school child who was sexually molested over a long period by a talent studio predator still had to retell their victimization experience 15 times, despite Taiwan having implemented the "Sexual Assault Case Victim Repeated Statement Reduction System" for 25 years. Furthermore, when parents sought counseling resources from a New Taipei school in accordance with the newly amended Gender Equity Education Act following the 2023 MeToo movement, they were refused. When a New Taipei Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center social worker accompanied a child prior to a police interview, they had not even met the child once. Looking further at recent successive incidents—the Mao Chun-shen case involving serial child sexual abuse, the nanny child-abuse case of little Kai-kai, the long-term sexual abuse of students by a Taichung Little League baseball team coach, and the child abuse and indecency case of childcare workers at the Ching-kuo San-min Kindergarten—they all highlight the undeniable fact that Taiwan's current child protection system has virtually collapsed.

Therefore, Legislator Fan Yun proposed two brand-new solutions for the child protection system. First, establish a "Dedicated Child Development and Protection Unit," utilizing "dedicated manpower" and "investigative professionals" to handle child-related matters. In addition to directly dispatching social workers to accompany victimized families through the police, health, education, and judicial systems during judicial sexual assault and indecency incidents similar to today's victimized child, this unit can also uniformly handle various administrative investigation cases in schools and child-related institutions, encompassing childcare units, kindergartens, elementary and junior high schools, as well as colleges and universities, incorporating the investigation, handling, and prevention of illegal incidents such as gender equity violations, bullying, corporal punishment, improper treatment, and child abuse.

Second, establish a "Child Worker Certification System" to eradicate unfit personnel from coming into contact with children. Legislator Fan Yun has been advocating for this system since last year, demanding that the Executive Yuan evaluate incorporating it into amendments to the Protection of Child and Juvenile Welfare and Rights Protection Act. In this case, it could have precisely resolved the issue where the perpetrator, despite having a prior criminal record for molesting young children, was able to come into contact with young children repeatedly. Legislator Fan Yun emphasized that the child worker certification system is the "good citizen certificate" of the child protection sector, which will prevent repeat-offender predators from having the opportunity to access children.

Chen Pei-yu ｜ Legislator

Currently, many professional workers' understanding of the agency of children and youth remains frozen a decade ago. How to design a system to empower them, centering around the client, is how we can genuinely care for victims and their families.

Regarding local government, has New Taipei City's administrative investigation actually been initiated? The school has received notification, but it appears the school's tier-three counseling mechanism has yet to be activated, which is regrettable. We originally assumed school teachers understood, but the competencies and capacity of teachers require discussion. Currently, many professional workers' understanding of the agency of children and youth remains frozen a decade ago. How can we design systems to empower them?

Centering around the client is the only way to genuinely care for victims and their families.
 

Tai Wei-shan ｜ New Taipei City Councilor

Central government regulations contain a loophole, defining cram schools as having five or more students while classes with fewer than five students, such as one-on-one or one-on-two tutoring, do not count as cram schools, leaving such teachers outside regulatory oversight. New Taipei City Government's social worker appointment rate ranks second to last nationwide; social worker staffing shortages and overwork urgently need resolution. I hope no child falls through the cracks.

Councilor Tai Wei-shan stated that the predator operated illegally for many years, and the 12 cases brought to light are likely just the tip of the iceberg. The New Taipei City Government has yet to launch an expanded investigation into this case, failing to ascertain how many more victimized children exist, in an apparent attempt to downplay the truth of the case. Mayor Hou must exercise public authority to protect the children.

Councilor Tai Wei-shan criticized the New Taipei City Education Department for prior dereliction of duty. Because it failed to actively crack down on illegal cram schools, a predator with two prior convictions for offenses against sexual autonomy was able to hide among them and continue offending, causing parents to unknowingly send their children into the jaws of the wolf and resulting in severe physical and psychological trauma. The New Taipei City Government should comprehensively inspect, penalize, and order the suspension of illegal cram schools!

Councilor Tai Wei-shan pointed out that current parent laws define cram schools as having five or more students, failing to adapt to current diverse patterns. The New Taipei City Government should petition the central government to amend the law or formulate local autonomous regulations to patch the loophole as quickly as possible. Councilor Tai Wei-shan explained that the school initially failed to actively counsel the victim in this case, only intervening a month or two later when parents inquired, failing to catch the child's emotions or alleviate the parents' anxieties in the first instance, leaving room for improvement. Councilor Tai Wei-shan emphasized that New Taipei's social worker recruitment rate ranks second to last nationwide, and understaffing leads to overwork, impacting service quality and preventing timely support for victims. Staffing levels should be filled as quickly as possible.