Ninety-nine-year-old swindling suspect Zhou Zhiping, reads evidence at trial in the Chaoyang District People's Court, Beijing on Tuesday, February 3. A court official told the Global Times reporter that nearly a year later, no decision has been reached on Zhou.

For murdering his wife of 50 years, 71-year-old Li Jinguo was sentenced to life imprisonment in October last year by the Hefei People's Intermediate Court of Anhui Province.

Li on May 6, 2008 hammered his wife to death after a quarrel. He turned himself in later that day, saying he had suspected his wife of having an affair with their neighbor. Although he had no hard evidence, he reportedly found he just couldn't control himself.

"The life of seniors is pale, disjointed from life in mainstream society," Judge Li Hong told local media after her sentence.

"Especially after their children have their own families, they feel a strong sense of abandonment.

"Thus loneliness always leads to crankiness, groundless suspicions and finally they go to extremes."

About the same time as Judge Li was busy rationalizing a brutal murder, a report released from Beijing Haidian District People's Court revealed that crimes committed by people over 70 had increased 20 percent over the last two years on the Chinese mainland, with the oldest criminal nearly 90. More than half the cases involved assault, fraud or rape, the report indicated.

Rape and sexual harassment had increased the most among elderly out of all age groups, said a Shanghai Second Intermediate Court judge who requested anonymity.

"A large number of such cases happened in rural areas where most of the old people live alone," he said. "They have neither received much education, nor had a chance to see and learn about the changing world, both materially and ideologically."

With crimes by the elderly increasing, he said, "such cases are still very special and the punishment will also be lighter than crimes committed by a younger or middle-aged person."

A 12-year-old was sexually harassed and raped many times by an 82-year-old man in a small village of Guangdong Province last year. His threats kept the girl quiet until the mother finally took her to police. The man was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and fined 5,000 yuan ($744) compensation.

A significant number of rape victims were young girls, mostly under 14, according to 2009 research into cases at a Chongqing Municipality district court.