A former senior official in Yongcheng, Henan Province, was executed on Tuesday for raping 11 underage girls, the provincial higher people's court confirmed to the Global Times on Wednesday.
Li Xingong, a former deputy office director under the Yongcheng Party Committee, had raped 11 minors from late 2011 to May 2012, before he was detained while he was committing an assault at the entrance of the Yongcheng No.3 High School on the evening of May 8, 2012.
Police also discovered evidence, including condoms and lubricant, and information on the victims, the youngest of whom was 12 years old, in Li's office and car.
Li was then fired from his position and was arrested on criminal charges days later, the China News Service reported.
Li was sentenced to death by the province's Shangqiu Intermediate People's Court in the first trial. Li appealed and the provincial higher court upheld the verdict in the second trial. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) then approved the death penalty, Henan Daily reported on Wednesday.
"Li deserves capital punishment according to China's criminal law. His case had a very serious influence for there were so many victims involved," Han Yusheng, a criminal law professor with the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Wednesday. "Rape and molestation will cast a shadow on his child victims for their whole lives."
Li was awarded a 200,000-yuan ($32,640) prize by the Yongcheng government for his hard work in 2011.
Child rape and molestation cases have recently been widely reported in the country, triggering public outrage.
Li Jun, 44, a former official of the Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau in Guangdong Province, was sentenced to four years in jail on June 14 for molesting three minors under 14 years old on multiple occasions between September 2011 and June 2012, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
An elementary school principal and a government employee, who were alleged to have sexually assaulted six schoolgirls aged between 11 and 14 in May, were indicted by a local court in Wanning, Hainan Province, on May 28.
Han said under the aegis of their official positions, these child abusers are not easily spotted, adding that parents of victims are also afraid of retaliation.
"These children have a poor sense of self-protection when being sexually assaulted and some of them feel shy to dictate their experiences to others," Han said, adding that they should be educated to learn how to protect themselves from sex abuse.
The SPC published examples of three child abuse cases on May 29, in an effort to combat crimes against minors and protect their rights. In one of the cases, a teacher surnamed Bao, whose other personal information was unknown, was executed for sexually molesting seven schoolgirls.
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