Paedophile school principal executed in China

Beijing, Jan 10: China today executed a paedophile deputy school principal for kidnapping and killing a six-year -old girl and then molesting her body.

Yang Haijun, 47, deputy head of Wang'an Township Central Primary School of Laiyuan County in Hebei Province was convicted for kidnapping the girl on July 27, 2013 to demand ransom from her parents. He took the girl back to his home and suffocated her after she cried and shouted.

The paedophile head then abused her body and buried it near the border between Laiyuan and Yuxian counties on the same day, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Police detained him on August 2, 2013 on suspicion of intentional homicide. He was sentenced to death in December, but appealed against it.

The Higher People's Court of Hebei Province rejected Yang Haijun's appeal and upheld the death penalty last year. China has had a string of child molestation cases involving teachers in recent years. In September, a 61-year-old primary school teacher was detained for raping several girls in central China's Hubei Province.

In April, a court in east China's Anhui Province sentenced a school teacher to death for raping five schoolgirls and molesting six others. In a move to intensify the crackdown on such crimes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced in May that China charged a total of 8,069 people with child molestation from 2010 to 2013.

PTI