Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship Taichung, Taiwan · 2025

Taiwan: temple master's sentence increased to 16 years for rapes framed as a fate-changing ritual

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

temple master claiming spiritual succession from his predecessor

Organization

Xifang Rulai Temple

Spiritual nexus

The complainants came to the temple for religious guidance and fate correction, and the defendant's claimed spiritual succession is what let him present sexual acts as the ritual remedy they had sought.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment
  • Prosperity, divination, or curse-removal claim
  • Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2025-12-13 · conviction; sentence increased on appeal

    Taichung District Court; Taiwan High Court (Taichung branch). A temple operator surnamed Liu, who took over his late mother's Xifang Rulai Temple and claimed spiritual succession, was convicted of repeatedly raping female devotees over some fifteen years — at least 58 documented instances against five women in the criminal case — coercing them by presenting sex as a 'fate-changing' ritual and having victims sign coerced consent documents. The district court imposed 10 years; the appellate court found that too lenient and increased it to 16 years.

Appellate history

  1. 2025-12-13 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • sex presented as a 'fate-changing' ritual
  • coerced written 'consent' documents

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting appellate disposition '台中神棍誆「嘿咻改命」15年性侵5女58次 二審加重判刑16年', ETtoday (Taiwan), 13 Dec. 2025.

Taiwanese outlet reporting the appellate court's increase of the sentence to 16 years and the fate-changing ritual used to coerce the complainants.

Related record

Related cases · Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship

← Explore all cases