A Taipei café owner has been sentenced for secretly filming 20 women over almost 10 years, a case that ends with a heavy prison term for him and no forgiveness from most victims.

• The owner of a café in Taipei's Datong district hid cameras to film women using toilets, showering, and changing.
• The filming ran from 2014 to 2024, spreading from his café to guesthouses in Kaohsiung, Hualien, and Taitung, and even to trips in Tokyo and Seoul.
• He used cameras disguised as air fresheners and electric shavers, then sorted the clips into folders named after each victim and backed them up to cloud storage.
• Police seized his phone, tablet, laptop, hard drive, and memory cards in a raid last June; the court has now ordered all of it confiscated.
• He confessed and offered each of the 20 women compensation, but most refused the money and asked the judge for the harshest possible sentence.

Outlook: The Shilin court handed down five years that cannot be converted to a fine, plus a further three and a half years that can, and appeals are still possible.