Taiwan | KMT calls for child abuse death penalty amendment

Article 286 of the Criminal Code should be amended to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment on those guilty of child abuse leading to death, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus has proposed.

Under the current law, “a person who maltreats a minor under the age of 18, or impairs the mental or physical health or development thereof by other means” would be imprisoned for up to five years, while offenses that lead to the death of a minor could result in imprisonment for up to 10 years.

In its proposal, the KMT caucus called for the introduction of the death penalty or life sentencing for the abuse of children aged six or younger that leads to their death. For abuse that does not result in death, the minimum sentence would be raised from six months to seven years under the amendment.

The KMT caucus said the motivation for the proposal came from the public reaction to the death of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai-kai (剴剴), who had allegedly been abused to death by a licensed in-home childcare provider in December last year.

The caregiver, surnamed Liu (劉), was arrested and detained in January in connection with the case.

“Article 286 of the Criminal Code was previously revised in May 2019 to increase the criminal liability for child abuse,” a statement from the caucus said.

“However, since then 25 children nationwide have died as a result of severe abuse. This shows that the previous revision has not curbed child abuse cases, and there is a need to increase criminal penalties.”

Nine proposals on the amendment were introduced by KMT legislators during the most recent legislative session. In addition to the version introduced by the caucus, one other version introduced by KMT legislators Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) and Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) was also submitted for review.

In that version, stricter punishments are stipulated for the abuse of children aged three or younger.

Under this version of the amendment, those abusing children up to the age of three would face imprisonment of between five and 12 years, while those whose abuse of a child aged three or younger that leads to the child’s death would face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Source: taipeitimes.com, Huang Ching-yi and William Hetherington, April 8, 2024

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