Policemen jailed for fatal attempted rape
Updated: 2010-11-01 07:46
BEIJING - A court in Hunan province said on Sunday that it had jailed two police officers and three other suspects for the attempted rape of two teenage girls, one of whom jumped to her death while trying to resist her attackers.
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Gong Cheng, a Hunan police officer, was given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve for the attempted rape of two teenage girls, the Intermediate People's Court of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture said on Sunday in Fenghuang County People's Court in Fenghuang, Central China's Hunan province, Oct 31, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]
</td></tr></tbody></table> One of the pair, Gong Cheng, a Hunan police officer, was given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, the Intermediate People's Court of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture said. Xu Lei, the other police officer, was sentenced to 15 years in jail. Lin Yi, one of three other men involved in the attempt, was given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, and the other two, life in prison and 13 years.
According to the court statement, the two girls, surnamed Qiu and Hou, from neighboring Hubei province, knew one of the attackers and had gone to a karaoke bar in the autonomous prefecture with him and the four others on Sept 4. The men decided to spike the girls' drinks with ketamine, an anaesthetic that causes a temporary loss of sensation, and take them to a hotel where they tried to rape the girls, both 16, the report said.
When the girls resisted, one of the men slapped and kicked Qiu, and threatened her. When Gong tried to rape Qiu, she managed to get away and jumped out of a window of the ninth-floor room, falling to her death. The five were also ordered to pay more than 350,000 yuan ($52,460) in compensation.
AFP - Xinhua
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Local residents gather outside Fenghuang County People's Court for the trial in Fenghuang, Central China's Hunan province, Oct 31, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]