China's Supreme People's Court vowed Wednesday to crack down on crimes against children, publicizing punishments meted out in three recent cases, including the execution of a grade school teacher who repeatedly raped seven students.
The announcement, carried on the website of the party-run People's Daily, appeared to be in response to public outrage over a recent series of reports of sexual assaults against schoolgirls. At least four primary school teachers have been detained this month for allegedly sexually molesting young students — some as young as 8 years old.
Chen Zaipeng, a former primary school principal in southern China's Hainan province, was charged with rape after he spent one night with four school girls— all under the age 14 — in a hotel and allegedly sexually molested them, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.
Elsewhere, three primary school teachers — in central Henan province, southern Hunan province and southern city of Shenzhen respectively — have been detained for allegedly sexually assaulting their students, state media reported this week.
The allegations have infuriated the Chinese public, who are demanding stronger, more effective protection of the children and harsher punishment against the culprits.
As reported by People's Daily, the supreme court said it will step up efforts to guide courts at all levels to crack down crimes against children to ensure a safe and healthy environment in which they can grow up.
In the two other cases announced by the top court, a woman was sentenced to death for fatally abusing her 5-year-old step-daughter and a man was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for instigating teenagers to commit crimes.
The court's report said the man convicted of raping seven school children was recently executed. It identified the man by his family name of Bao but did not give details such as the name of the village school where he worked or the location. It said the man used his teaching job to lure the girls to different school rooms, where he sexually molested them, forced them to watch pornographic photos and video, and took naked photos of the girls.