Compensation for kidnap, rape victim

Shanghai Daily, March 15, 2011

A women kidnapped outside her apartment block, held hostage and raped has been given 10,000 yuan (US$1,521) compensation because her property management company failed to protect her.

The company did not check the identity of strangers entering the neighborhood and did not answer a call alerting them of the abduction, said the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court yesterday.

One night in September 2009, Qin Yue, 30, an employee of an international company, was about to enter her apartment building when two men attacked her from behind and bundled her into a car parked outside.

Even though Qin's husband, Xiao Ming, heard his wife's screams, no one answered when he called security guards and the property management company in a bid to stop the car.

Qin was held in a house in woodland where she was raped by one man while the other took her key and robbed her home of property valued at 100,000 yuan (US$15,220). She later escaped and alerted police.

According to Qin, she had talked to the officials of the property management company before the incident as she believed she had been followed in the neighborhood for about two weeks.

The company guaranteed she would be safe and promised frequent patrols.

The court said the property management company should have had security guards on duty 24 hours a day and failed to check on the suspicious car and its occupants.

The two men had been tried and convicted earlier for the offences committed.