Kaohsiung: A Kaohsiung man has been sentenced to 13 years and eight months in prison for encouraging underage girls to take lewd photos of themselves and then blackmailing them into having sex over an 11-year period, according to the Kaohsiung District Court.According to Focus Taiwan, in the ruling handed down on Oct. 25, the court stated that the man, identified by his family name Chen, was found guilty of crimes against eight girls from 2011 to 2022. Seven of the girls were aged between 12-18 when the offenses took place, resulting in Chen violating the Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act.The court highlighted that Chen's actions inflicted significant mental and physical harm on the young girls to satisfy his sexual urges. Furthermore, the court reprimanded him for failing to reach settlements with the victims. During the trial, Chen confessed to his crimes but argued that one of the eight victims was his girlfriend, an account that the court rejected.The court detailed how Chen began committing offenses as a minor, wooing girls he knew through online apps with money, cellphones, and gifts. He persuaded them to take lewd or obscene photos of themselves. Chen later used these photos to coerce the young girls into having sex with him by threatening to share them online or harm their family members if the girls did not comply with his demands.The case surfaced when four of the victims reported Chen to the police, leading to his arrest shortly afterward at a private residence in the Daliao District of Kaohsiung. Prosecutors seized hundreds of indecent photos and videos on his computers. The ruling can be appealed.