TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Famed Taiwanese photographer Tsai Che-kai (蔡哲凱), has been indicted by the Taipei prosecutors for pandering sexual intercourse (媒介性交罪), after a female university student last year accused him of duping young women into taking nude photographs and engaging in a sex party
On Dec. 24 of last year, a female student from Asia University posted a photo of three fully nude women kneeling with their backs to the camera on the college student forum Dcard saying that her friend was among those photographed. She alleged that her friend was then duped into a sex orgy that included six women and seven men by Tsai, who goes by the internet alias Mu Chuan- Shen (穆川申), prompting the Taipei Prosecutors Office to begin the investigation.
After the student posted the photo of the three nude women, which originated from Mu's Facebook page, 500 more sexually explicit photos also surfaced. More students came forward saying that they recognized their classmates in the photos, with a man claiming that one of the women had tricked one of the men saying that they were going to sing KTV, when in fact it was a sex party.
Later, one of the boyfriends of the women involved said that the photographer charged the men money to take part in the "group party" involving six women and seven men, after which he posted images on his Instagram account under the heading "event photos." Netizens criticized the shoot saying, "This is using art as a pretext for sex, stripping is art, sex is also art, there's no way to justify this!"
According to media reports, the case was investigated by the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office. Prosecutors analogized Tsai's nude photos and found that the decoration in the background matched that of love hotels in Taipei City, New Taipei City, and Tainan, where he organized at least seven sex parties.
Following an in-depth investigation, prosecutors found that at least 10 participants had made suspicious bank transfers to Tsai. On Aug. 10 of last year, Tsai was summoned to appear in court and was released on NT$60,000 bond.
Tsai. (Photo from Chuan Shen Mu Facebook page)
Tsai denied committing any crimes. He argued that it was his admiration of Japanese erotic photographer Nobuyoshi Araki that led him three or four years ago to make like-minded friends on the internet to take "artistic" group photographs.
Tsai claimed that the only fee paid by participants was to cover the cost of drinks and the room. He denied making any profit from the parties.
However, prosecutors found that Tsai was only collecting money from the male participants, who would each be charged NT$2,000 to NT$3,000 per party. Female participants not only took part for free, but also received thousands of Taiwan Dollars in reimbursement money for "transportation expenses."
In addition, the sex parties resulted in many salacious photographs which Tsai could sell for a profit, prompting prosecutors to press charges.
Mu did not respond to requests by Taiwan News for comment on the allegations.
According to Article 235 of the Criminal Code, distributing, broadcasting or selling obscene texts, drawings, sounds or other articles, or displaying them in a blatant manner, or to viewing or listening to them, is punishable with a maximum prison sentence of up to two years, criminal detention or a fine of up to NT$30,000 (US$1,000). The same applies for those who intend to disperse, broadcast and sell, and those who hold, the aforesaid words, pictures, sounds, videos and their attachments or other articles.
