A 33-year-old man was on Monday, May 23, 2016 arraigned for allegedly beheading a 4-year-old girl.
Taiwanese prosecutors indicted Wang Ching-yu, for murder over the public decapitation, saying that they would seek the death penalty for the “extremely cold-blooded” attack.
Ching-yu is accused of overpowering the mother of the child near a metro station in central Taipei, and beheading the young girl with a kitchen knife.
The mother and a number of bystanders tried to intervene but were pushed away and unable to save the child, who police have identified only by the surname Liu.
Prosecutors at the Shihlin District Court in Taipei said that it was an “extremely cold-blooded” crime which had deeply shocked the generally peaceful island.
“It has caused indelible pain to her mother, who witnessed the cruelty,” prosecutors said in a statement at the close of their investigation, which took less than two months.
“The suspect has never repented… so we suggest the court sentence him to death,” they said, adding that capital punishment in this instance was important to maintain society’s faith in law and justice. Taiwan resumed capital punishment in 2010 after a five-year hiatus.
Executions are reserved for serious crimes such as aggravated murder. Some politicians and rights groups have called for its abolition, but various opinion surveys show majority support for the death penalty.
After the March 28 decapitation, hundreds of Taiwanese, many dressed in black and wearing stickers reading “Death penalty is necessary,” called for Ching-yu to be executed.
Ching-yu was arrested at the scene of the crime and was subsequently taken into custody. Prosecutors say that blood test show the suspect was not under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime, nor had he displayed any signs of mental illness after the attack.
According to the police, the suspect had previously been arrested for drug-related crimes. He was attacked by an angry mob while in custody.
Taiwan’s Apple Daily has reported that he was unemployed and living with his parents, and had previously been hospitalised with mental health issues. The killing came less than a year after the throat of an eight-year-old girl was slit in her school restroom in Taipei.
It sparked widespread public anger and fresh debate about capital punishment.
