2013-10-22
.jpg)
Families of three of the schoolgirls abused by a teacher in Ruichang, Jiangxi province petition outside the Ministry of Education in Beijing on Sept. 22, 2013 carrying signs calling for compensation.
Photo courtesy of an activist
The parent of one of a group of seven girls who were repeatedly sexually abused by their elementary schoolteacher has hit out at a 14-year jail term handed to their abuser last week, while lawyers said more victims may yet come forward.
The Ruichang Municipal People’s Court in Jiangxi handed down the 14-year sentence to former primary school teacher Tao Biaogong, 63, after the parents’ lawyers argued for a “heavy” criminal penalty for Tao, as well as compensation of one million yuan (U.S.$147,000) per victim.
The sentencing came after the parents succeeded in getting the charges against Tao, who initially only admitted to lesser charges, reviewed following a petitioning trip to Beijing last month.
The court announced last Friday that Tao had been found guilty on seven counts of “sexual abuse of a minor” after the girls were found to be infected with genital warts and to have suffered from intimate bleeding.
A father of one of the victims, who gave only a pseudonym Mu, said the parents had argued for the harshest penalty possible: life imprisonment.
“The parents all said that it would be best if he were to die in prison,” Mu said. “And yet the defendant said he thought the sentence was too harsh.”
“But our children have had their lives ruined, and he thinks it was too heavy.”
Mu said the sentencing took place in a hearing that was well-attended by journalists.
He said the level of compensation wouldn’t be set until the girls had been examined at a specialist department in Nanchang city.
Other possible victims
Wang Yu, a Beijing-based lawyer who represented one of the girls, said the abuse had taken place over a nine-month period beginning in September 2011, when the girls were in the first grade.
She said that there had been 14 girls in Tao’s class and that other victims may yet come forward.
“Right now we know of a few children who haven’t yet been confirmed by the police [as victims],” Wang said. “There were 14 girls in their class, and we have seven who are confirmed [as victims].”
“But we know of two more, although police say there is still insufficient evidence, so they haven’t been confirmed,” she said, adding that the seven confirmed victims had been abused on a total of 115 occasions.
Tao, who was detained on July 5, had previously confessed to charges of “sexually molesting” the seven girls, aged eight and nine, at Shangyuan Primary School in Ruichang, local police said at the time.
But parents said the full extent of the abuse had come to light only after six of the seven girls had developed genital warts. The charges were reviewed after they petitioned the central government in Beijing.
While Tao admitted sexually touching the girls, he had initially denied having full intercourse with them, according to official media, but later admitted it in court.
The families are seeking compensation for the emotional and physical damage inflicted on their daughters by their ordeal, as well as for economic losses incurred by medical bills and the loss of employment as they quit work to fight their daughters’ cases.
Protecting children’s rights
Rights groups say the ruling Chinese Communist Party has failed to uphold the rights of the country’s children, with many left vulnerable to sexual abuse, child labor, and harm through shoddy goods and medicines and poor safety standards.
The China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group issued a report earlier this month hitting out at China’s “abysmal record” in protecting children.
It said those who pursue their children’s rights are frequently the targets of government persecution, citing the case of Tang Hui, sent to labor camp for her campaign for tougher sentences for men who gang-raped her 11-year-old daughter.
In the southern island province of Hainan, parents of schoolgirls raped by a former high-school principal and a local official in May have said that jail terms of 11 and 13 years handed to the rapists in June were far too light.
Reported by Hai Nan for RFA’s Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
