Petition Calls for Tougher Sentencing in Fatal Child Abuse Cases

TaiwanPlus News

110,000 people are now backing a petition to put child abusers who kill their victims in prison for life––or have them executed. That's as two nannies are on trial for allegedly killing an infant in their care.

Transcript

00:00A crowd of hundreds shouts in rage outside the Taipei District Court.

00:07Inside, two nannies are on trial for the 2023 death of baby Kaikai, entrusted to their care

00:14but allegedly abused to death at their hands.

00:19As reporters shout questions at the accused, the people outside are calling on the court

00:24to give the pair the heaviest sentence the law will allow.

00:28Some have come from more than an hour away just to be here.

00:31This is a case that stunned all of Taiwan.

00:51This is just part of a wider reckoning with child abuse in Taiwan.

00:55Among the more extreme cases from recent years is that of a kindergarten worker found

01:00guilty last year of over 200 counts of child sexual abuse.

01:04There have been mass scares, too, with allegations preschools were drugging children spreading

01:09panic in 2023.

01:12But the death of infant Kaikai may be a turning point, and many feel enough is enough.

01:17110,000 people have signed a petition to mandate harsher penalties for abusers who kill children.

01:24Life in prison without parole, or even the death penalty.

01:29The petition's only been out there for a month, but it already has enough support to require

01:33a government response.

01:46If the law is changed, it won't apply in Kaikai's case.

01:51Even the final government response won't come until mid-May.

01:54A few days after judges are slated to announce their verdict.

01:57But the petition is one sign of just how strong fears for children's safety and disgust at

02:02their mistreatment have grown.

02:05Klein Wong and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.

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