Taipei - A Taiwan man has been sentenced to six-and-a-half
years' imprisonment for posing as a shaman and having sex with a
young woman under the pretense of an exorcism, a newspaper reported
Friday.
The Hsinchu District Court in west Taiwan sentenced Yang Jih-hua,
59, on Thursday on his conviction of rape, for having sex with the
victim 13 times in 2007 and impregnating her, the Liberty Times said.
Yang met the victim in early 2007 when she was 20 and was buying
lottery tickets. Seeing her pale and weak, Yang said he had spiritual
power and asked the woman to contact him so that he could treat her
illness.
The woman visited Yang a few days later. He told the victim that
she was possessed by ghosts and must visit him once every week - for
a total of 50 visits - so that he could perform rituals 'to drive out
ghosts.'
On a later visit in April 2007, Yang told the victim that she was
possessed by the ghosts of those she had harmed in her previous life,
and he should have sex with her to cleanse her of the ghosts' semen.
He also gave the woman powder medicine to take.
From April-July 2007, Yang had sex with the woman 13 times. His
fraud was exposed when the woman's mother found her daughter's health
had deteriorated and that she was pregnant.
The mother made her daughter have an abortion, and a DNA test
showed that the foetus was Yang's child, the Liberty Times said.
When Yang appeared in court, he insisted that Buddha appointed him
to be a shaman. He denied molesting the woman, saying he only gave
her treatment and powder medicine.
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