Chinese farmer appeals death sentence for 116 rapes

[News_Editor]

Chinese farmer appeals death sentence for 116 rapes

2011-04-19 14:36:57 GMT+7 (ICT)

BEIJING (BNO NEWS) -- A Chinese farmer who was sentenced to death in December for raping more than 100 women is appealing his conviction, state-run media reported on Tuesday.

Dai Qingcheng, 46, from east China's Anhui province, was convicted and sentenced to death in December for raping at least 116 women between 1993 and 2009. He was also convicted of robbing 91 of his victims.

It was not immediately known when the appeal would be heard, but the state-run China Daily reported that a date had been scheduled.

Police began searching for an attacker in July 2008 after a 49-year-old woman from Linquan county reported that a masked man with a knife had forced his way into her home and attempted to rape her. Her husband and son were away at the time, but her 11-year-old daughter was at home.

"I was very afraid but I realized I had to protect my daughter," the victim said, as quoted by China Daily. "I screamed and some neighbors heard me. The man escaped quickly."

Police investigating the attempted rape soon discovered that similar attacks were not a rare event in the area, and discovered that many villagers from Dai's hometown had been attacked. Also women in a nearby county had been attacked.

Many of Dai's victims were said to be the wives of migrant workers who were away when the attacks happened, and the attacker usually broke into homes at night. Dai quickly emerged as a suspect.

"But we were surprised when he told us he had raped about 100 women," Yang Yongkui, a police officer from Linquan police bureau, was quoted by China Daily. "The victims he violated ranged from very young girls to women in their 50s and one of them was six-months pregnant."

Chen Wei, a lawyer specializing in women's studies, told the newspaper that many of Dai's victims chose to remain silent and even at first denied being raped when approached by police. "In the villages, people are very conservative and any conversation about sex is deemed shameful, even if you are violated, you are ashamed to talk about it," he said.

He added: "That's the reason why Dai didn't get caught for 17 years. The silence of the women from the shame they felt let him carry on."

Ming Tian, Dai's lawyer at the first trial, told China Daily that he does not expect a different verdict after the appeal because there is not a lot of new evidence.

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