A teacher has been sentenced to death for raping 18 primary
school pupils in northwestern Gansu Province.
Cheng Laifu, a teacher at a school in Changhe Township of
Tongwei County under the jurisdiction of Dingxi City, was convicted
of raping a total of 18 girls in grade three and four - aged nine
to ten years old - on 70 separate occasions between September 2001
and March 2005, according to the Western Economic Daily
based in Gansu's provincial capital of Lanzhou.
Cheng forced or lured the children into his dormitory or office
under the pretext of tutoring them before committing the crimes,
the report said, citing a statement released by the Dingxi
Municipal Intermediate People's Court.
Cheng even raped several girls at the same time, the court
document said. "Cheng's crimes have had an extremely negative
impact on society," the statement added.
But an official with the county education bureau, when contacted
by Xinhua on Wednesday, refused to provide more details about Cheng
and the name of the school. Sources said the court had conducted a
closed-door trial.
In July 2005, teacher Li Guang, also from Changhe Township, was
sentenced to death for raping 23 pupils in grade four and five
between September and November in 2004, which led to the
resignation of the director of the county education bureau surnamed
Cui.
The local education official would not say whether the two cases
happened at the same school.
(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2007)