A 13-year-old girl in Hunan province gave birth to a baby girl after being raped by a villager. The criminal suspect has since been arrested.
On August 5, police in Xinhua County, Hunan were alerted of a suspected underage rape case on a girl known as Xiaohua.
Xiaohua became pregnant after the rape, which occurred sometime before the case was reported early this month.
On August 8, she delivered a baby girl.
After a police investigation, a male villager named Zhou was confirmed as the lead suspect and was arrested on August 12.
On August 13, after comparing Zhou’s DNA and conducting an interview with him, he was placed in criminal detention.
The investigation is still ongoing.
Xiaohua goes to school in Chaxi Town and is a typical ‘left-behind child;’ in rural areas of China it’s common for parents to work in cities to make more money and leave their children behind.
Although these children are taken care of by their grandparents, they often take on more responsibilities than other children their own age.
Xiaohua’s father works in the city but her mother suffers from a mental disability.
Most sexual assualts on minors are committed by acquaintances.
In 2021 alone, there were 223 public underage sexual assault cases, and 160 of them were committed by acquaintances, 80.8%. Within these cases, teachers and staff take up 27.5%, and family members take up 12.5%.
According to Article 236 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, “Whoever rapes a woman by violence, coercion or other means shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of no less than three years but not more than ten years. Whoever commits adultery with a girl under the age of 14 shall be regarded as rape and given a heavier punishment.”
According to Article 25 of Opinions on Punishing Crimes of Sexual Assault on Minors According to Law, “committing crimes of rape or indecent assault by persons who have special duties towards minors, persons who have a common family life relationship with minors” and “committing crimes of rape or indecent assault against left-behind children in rural areas” shall be severely punished. The “special duties” include teachers.
[Image via Pxhere]
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