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Driver in bus blaze sentenced for rape: reports

Driver in bus blaze sentenced for rape: reports

Driver in bus blaze sentenced for rape: reports

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The driver of the bus in which 26 people died in a fire last July 19 had been sentenced to five years in prison for raping a female tour guide, making the theory more likely that he started the fire as an act of revenge and suicide, reports said Saturday.
Only on Friday did prosecutors reveal that the driver, Su Ming-cheng, who died along with 24 Chinese nationals and a Taiwanese tour guide, had a blood alcohol content of 1.075 milligrams per liter or four times the legal limit, making it highly likely that his drinking had contributed to the accident.
According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, the Taiwan High Court sentenced Su to five years in jail and compensation of NT$900,000 (US$28,000) on June 24. He took leave one week before the verdict, and the group of Chinese tourists from the province of Liaoning was his first job after he returned to work following the sentence, the paper said.
A colleague who used to work with him in 2014 recognized his picture in the papers following the blaze, though at the time the driver was known under a different name, Su Chung-hua, the Apple Daily reported.
According to the court verdict as read by reporters, the tour guide was working with Su for the first time on October 11, 2013, when he entered her room at a Hualien City motel under the pretext of helping her.
A district court sentenced him to five years, he filed an appeal, but was convicted to the same sentence last month, the Apple Daily reported.
According to the reports, when the Chinese tour group visited a tax-free shop ahead of their trip to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Su disappeared for two hours and made a phone call for 20 minutes. Prosecutors were reportedly still investigating any connection between the call and the disaster that would happen shortly later.
While the bus blaze was initially described as purely an accident, several unusual elements came to light, such as the fact that the driver did not stop the bus immediately after smoke had been seen, the inability of the passengers to open an emergency exit, and the presence of several containers filled with gasoline on board the bus.
The reports about Su’s blood alcohol content were only made public after the relatives of the Chinese tourists and guide had left the country.