Beijing: A court in southwest China has sentenced eight people, including four officials, to between seven years and life for their roles in a child prostitution
ring, state press reported on Saturday.
Ringleader Yuan Ronghui, 37, was sentenced to life for
forcing 10 schoolgirls into prostitution, the China Daily
newspaper said.
The court in Zunyi, Guizhou province, sentenced seven
others to between seven and 14 years in prison yesterday.
They included four local officials and a teacher found
guilty of child rape, the youngest of whom was 13 years old,
the paper said.
Yuan, who was unemployed, provided the young girls -- and
her apartment -- to the men for about USD 15.
She was helped by two teenage accomplices who waited for
young girls at a school gate.
The teenage accomplices were sent to a detention centre
for minors, according to earlier reports.
The sex ring operated from October 2007 to July 2008. In
August parents of one of the girls raised the alarm after
discovering that their daughter was pregnant.
Bureau Report
