Australian teacher and student sued by wife for adultery

By Jason Pan / Staff reporter





An Australian teacher in Greater Kaohsiung and a student he had an affair with have been ordered to pay the man’s wife NT$500,000 (US$16,423), according to a ruling by the Kaohsiung District Court earlier this week.

According to the ruling, the man had been teaching English in Taiwan for many years and had been married to his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), for more than 10 years.

Chen said she inadvertently discovered an audio recording made by the car’s dash-mounted video camera last year, which had recorded her husband talking in English with a woman, who was a student of his, while they were in the car on June 3 last year.

The defendants carried on a conversation in English, interspersed with laughter and the sounds of kissing, heavy breathing and moaning, along with mention of “making love,” the court statement said.

Chen sued her husband and the student on adultery charges, and also referenced her emotional and psychological stress arising from the incident, demanding NT$1.5 million (US$49,400) as compensation for mental anguish.

Under questioning, the man said that the female passenger was his student, and, as a teacher, he was chatting with her in the car for the purpose of instructing her in English.

He said that since he had been married to Chen, she had often accused him of having affairs with other women, but that there was no truth to her allegations.

As evidence, Chen made a detailed transcript of the sound recording, translating the conversation from English into Chinese.

The court statement said the judge examined the transcript and found that the references to making love, feeling enjoyment and smelling body odors, along with sounds of kissing, heavy breathing and moaning indicated that the two were engaging in sexual activity at the time.

The court found both defendants guilty and ordered them to pay Chen NT$500,000 in damages.