Taiwan priest accused of sexually molesting 11 female disciples

Jun 14, 2007, 3:15 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan police on Thursday questioned a priest of a Christian church accused of molesting 11 female disciples, under the auspices of sex counselling.

Tang Tai-sheng, 58, founder of the Christian Disciples' Church in Taoyuan near Taipei, was detained Wednesday night but interrogation began Thursday as under Taiwanese law, a suspect can refuse to be questioned at night.

Tang, who previously was jailed for a sex crime, has been accused by one disciple, named Lin, of molesting 11 female church members, mostly high school and university students, and raping one of them. Lin claims to be one of the victims.

Tang allegedly video-taped them touching themselves and had threesome sexual games with them inside the church. The youngest of the victims was 14 years old.

On Wednesday night, police raided Tang's church, seized some sex videos and detained Tang for questioning, Taiwan press reported.

Tang denied the allegations, and accused Lin of seeking revenge because she always asked him for money but he had recently stopped giving her any.

Tang is married with three grown-up children. His wife and some disciples stand by him, claiming that Tang, at 58, is not able to molest girls and Lin is mentally-disturbed.

But police are taking the case seriously because Tang has a record of molesting female disciples.

In 1990, the Taoyuan District Court sentenced Tang to three years and six months' jail term for sexually molesting female disciples. Tang appealed the ruling but lost.

Tang finished serving his jail term in 2005 and reopened his church.