A 39-year-old man, Tsai Guang Yao Zhou, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for outraging the modesty of one of his female tenants when she was asleep in her bedroom.
While Tsai faced two charges for molesting his female tenant on two separate occasions in June and August 2021, he was convicted for the second charge and acquitted on the first.
The judge stated in his judgement dated Mar. 15, 2024, that he acquitted Tsai of the first charge because the victim's evidence for the first incident in June 2021 was "not usually convincing."
The victim testified that she continued to live in the flat after the incident as she was unsure whether the culprit was Tsai or a "spirit".
He was convicted of the second charge for the incident in August 2021, as the victim's "cogent and consistent evidence" was corroborated by closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage.
First incident
According to the judgment, Tsai claimed trial for his offences.
The trial revealed that the victim and her then-boyfriend rented a bedroom from Tsai and his wife.
On Jun. 5, 2021, the victim had alcoholic drinks with her boyfriend, Tsai, his wife, his sister and another female tenant.
After dinner, the victim fell asleep in her room while her boyfriend went to shower in the kitchen bathroom.
The victim testified that she woke up when she felt someone kiss her lips, touch her breast, remove her underwear and touch her private parts.
She said she opened her eyes and saw the silhouette of a male person with a hairstyle like Tsai, and the person left her room without saying anything.
She knew the male was not her boyfriend as he was bald. She also asked him if he had touched her earlier, and he said no as he was taking a shower.
She then told him what happened.
Boyfriend asked if the culprit was a 'spirit'
The victim and her boyfriend did not confront Tsai, although he was the only other male present in the flat at the time.
The pair continued to reside in the flat as they were not sure if the victim was molested by Tsai or "by a ghost or an imp".
Instead of lodging a report, they installed a CCTV camera in their room.
The victim testified that she did not confront Tsai or lodge a police report as she was not sure whether he or a spirit molested her.
Second incident
On Aug. 15, 2021, the same group had dinner and drinks together in the flat.
After dinner, the victim fell asleep in the room while waiting for her boyfriend, who was showering in the kitchen bathroom.
CCTV footage showed that on three occasions that night, Tsai opened the door to her room without knocking.
The second time, he walked towards the victim, and his left hand was seen "moving in a back-and-forth motion over her right breast".
He then turned the victim around, but she suddenly sat up. He spoke to the victim and then left the room.
The victim testified that when her boyfriend returned to the room, she told him that Tsai had touched her breast.
As they reviewed the footage captured by the CCTV, Tsai entered the room the third time without knocking. When he saw the boyfriend in the room, he closed the door and left without saying anything.
The next day, on Aug. 16, the victim filed a police report after the pair secured alternative living arrangements.
The landlord's defence
Tsai was charged with a molestation charge for each incident.
Tsai denied entering the room during the first incident and argued that he opened the door three times during the second incident, respectively, to shut the door fully, switch off the lights to "conserve energy", and check on the victim as he was "concerned" that she might "suffocate" while lying on the bed facing down.
First incident involving 'spirit' puzzling: Judge
Explaining why she acquitted the Tsai for the first incident, the judge said she found it puzzling why the victim decided to continue residing in the flat and "risk being molested again" even though she thought it "might have been a spirit" which molested her.
The judge added that the victim "seemed to regard molestation by a spirit to be of a different nature from molestation by a human being."
"That led me to wonder whether the victim understood molestation by a spirit to refer to some kind of supernatural experience which did not involve actual physical acts."
The judge said the lack of explanation by the victim casts reasonable doubt on her testimony as to whether "physical acts" actually took place.
Hence, she acquitted Tsai of the first charge because the victim's testimony was "not usually convincing" and there was a lack of strong corroborative evidence.
Landlord's explanation for second incident 'simply incredible' & 'outright absurd': Judge
The judge described the landlord's account of having "unthinkingly opened" his tenants' bedroom door without knocking on all three times as "simply incredible."
She said it was "absurd" to think that he would just open the door and walk in "at that hour" without knocking as he could "very well have walked in on the couple" when they were being intimate.
On the explanation that he walked in to "check on" the victim, the judge pointed out that it was “outright improper" for a male landlord to do so, and he could have asked his wife or sister who were in the living room.
"I found the accused’s account outright absurd and could not be believed."
The judge also pointed out that the landlord's account contradicted video evidence.
She said the totality of the evidence showed that the landlord had gone into the room to molest the victim and only pretended to check on her when she woke up.
On the accused's sentence after convicting the accused for the second charge, despite the prosecution's call for caning, the judge declined to impose caning as there was not enough evidence for aggravating circumstances to warrant a harsher penalty, such as skin-to-skin contact, prolonged molest or restraint use.
Tsai is appealing the conviction and his sentence and is on bail pending the appeal.
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