A prominent professor has been ordered to pay TW$1.2mil (S$52,861) in compensation to the husband of a student he had an affair with.

Prof Niu Huei-chih, 45, was asked to do so after a Taiwan count found him guilty of committing adultery on Friday in a civil suit filed by the student's husband.

Niu, a law PhD, is a renowned professor in the field of biotechnology and law. He was also an associate professor of the Institute of Law for Science and Technology at the National Tsing Hua University.

In the suit, the postgraduate husband claimed that Niu had been seducing his 34-year-old wife, surnamed Hung, with suggestive words since she took up her masters degree at the university in 2004 despite knowing that she was married.

She did not respond to Niu, China Times reported.

Two years later when Hung pursued her doctorate degree in the United Kingdom while Niu was conducting a research studies there, he sent her more than 70 love e-mails within two months.

She was touched by his words and agreed to go out with him.

After a few dates, Hung wanted to break up with Niu when her husband suspected that something was going on in June 2007.

Niu then asked her to accompany him to a seminar in Germany the next month as their "goodbye trip". While returning after the conference, they had sex at a transit hotel in London.

Hung became pregnant after that and gave birth to a baby girl the next year. She confessed to her husband.

She went to see Niu and asked him to admit that he had fathered the child but the professor refused.

Hung's husband was angry and complained to Tsing Hua. He later filed a civil suit against Niu when the university did not take any action against the professor.

A DNA test was later conducted on the baby and confirmed that she is Niu's daughter.

On the other hand, Niu's wife also filed a counter suit against Hung for seducing her husband and Hung's husband for turning a blind eye on his wife's adultery.

In October last year, the count ordered Hung to pay NT$500,000 (RM53,300) to Niu's wife.

Niu has resigned from Tsing Hua after the exposure of his sex scandal with Hung.