THERE HAS been widespread outrage in China over a child sex scandal that was only revealed when a teenager told her grandmother how scared she was of the “girl hunters” prowling outside her school.
The trial began yesterday of four government officials, a teacher and taxi driver on child rape charges in southwest China’s Guizhou province.
The five men are accused of raping teenage girls, all primary and secondary-school students in Xishui county, and they may, if convicted, face the death penalty.
An undercover investigation began in August after a woman in Xishui told police her teenage daughter had been raped.
By October the police had uncovered a ring where girls were allegedly abducted from one primary school and two secondary schools in the area by two teenage drug addicts, Yuan Yunqin, a local Communist Party official, told the Xinhua news agency.
The two allegedly brought the girls to the house of a former prostitute, although the woman in question has not yet been charged, Mr Yuan said.
The teenagers who allegedly forced the girls into prostitution have been put in a local juvenile detention centre, county chief prosecutor Ren Bingqiang said.
One victim, a 14-year-old, said she was tricked into going with the gang by a classmate. “She fled, and I was beaten up by two men when I tried to run after her,” she said.
She dared not tell anyone about her plight for fear she would be beaten up again. She tried to commit suicide by slitting her wrists, but her classmates saved her.
She was released only when she tricked another girl, aged 13, at the school into being lured away by the gang.
The 13-year-old confessed to her grandmother how scared she was at school. “She said there were always ‘girl hunters’ outside her school,” her grandmother said.
Under Chinese law, the jail term for rape is from three to 10 years, but statutory rapists can be sentenced to life imprisonment, or even death if they know the victim to be under-14.
“They’ve gone too far. It’s even worse than killing,” said Mr Yuan, adding that all the government employees allegedly involved would be punished accordingly.
The closed-door trial has prompted a horrified reaction, mostly calling for the accused to be shot out of hand.
“These are monsters, just kill them. Why bother to have a trial? That is a waste of resources,” wrote one Guangdong webizen.
Another anonymous blogger said the case was yet another example of abuse of power by government officials.
“Anyone who breaks the law, even a government official, should be punished like ordinary people. From this case, we could obviously see our government has not shouldered the social management responsibility.” Beijing has introduced a number of campaigns to stamp out public sector corruption, which is a major source of anger among the Chinese people.