Chinese men jailed for raping schoolgirl under tougher underage sex attack laws
Ruling is the first of its kind since decision to abolish controversial underage prostitution law
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 03 March, 2015, 11:28am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 March, 2015, 8:40am
Wu Nan [email protected]
The two men were jailed for five years because they had voluntarily confessed and their victim had forgiven them, prosecutors said. Photo: SCMP PIctures
Two men have been found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl, in a landmark case at a court in Qionglai city, Sichuan province.
The ruling is the first of its kind since the end of 2013, when the Supreme Court abolished the lesser offence of procuring underage girls for prostitution.
The Chengdu Economic Daily reported that the girl had been attending a middle school near Chengdu city when she was lured away by classmates and pimps and forced to accompany the two middle-aged men.
Both men knew she was under 14, but had sex with her anyway, paying her with cash and gifts, police said.
The Supreme People's Court amended the law on child sex attacks after public concerns that offenders were not receiving tough enough punishments. Photo: SCMP
Before the law was changed, suspects faced lighter sentences if they claimed they were ignorant of the victim's age.
Raping minors below 14 years old carries sentences of between three and 10 years in prison, depending on the age of the victims and the level of violence, according to mainland criminal law.
The two men were jailed for five years because they had voluntarily confessed and their victim had forgiven them, prosecutors said. Two pimps involved in the case were jailed for six and seven years respectively for organising prostitution.
Dr Ye Rui, a legal researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said that the change in the law was prompted by public outrage over lenient sentencing in sexual abuse cases featuring underage girls.
A case in May 2013, in which a primary school headmaster in Hainan province had sexually molested six under-age girls at hotels in Wanning city, provoked public demands for legal reform.
Girl Child Protection, a Beijing based NGO promoting girls' rights, said that 503 child sexual abuse cases had been reported by mainland media last year.
It said that the large number of child sexual abuse cases reflected the poor status of children's rights.
However, mainland lawyers said the conviction in the Qionglai case was a step forward for children's rights.
"The Qionglai case is significant. It shows that local prosecutors have acted upon the Supreme Court's reform abolishing the underage prostitution law," said Lu Miaoqing , a lawyer in Guangzhou.
Yet Lu Xiaoquan, director of Beijing Zhongze Women's Legal Research and Consulting Centre, said the sentences were too short.
"Only five years; I'm afraid that potential criminals might think they can get light sentences for committing child sexual abuse," he said.
