Death sentence for basement rapist
By Pan Zheng |
February 1, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A 40-YEAR-OLD man in central China's Hubei Province has been sentenced to death for chaining up and raping two women for hundreds of days, after the court rejected his claims of mental illness.
The Wuhan Intermediate People's Court on Sunday also found Zeng Qiangbao, a worker at the Wuhan Jingding Industrial Furnace Co, had committed nine other rapes and two robberies between 2007 and 2010, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.
Zeng kidnapped the women, aged about 20, in September of 2008 and July the next year and they had been chained up in his basement in Qingshan District for 590 days and 317 days respectively. The women, whose identities were not disclosed, said they suffered hunger, torture and sexual harassment before they were rescued by a repairman who saw their note hidden in a broken TV in May last year.
During the court hearing, Zeng denied the procuratorate's accusation that he had raped the women more than a hundred times, but he admitted he had never thought of releasing them.
Zeng raised an oral appeal immediately after the verdict was announced, claiming he had a mental disease and applying for a judicial appraisal of his mental situation. He also claimed his crime didn't deserve the death penalty because he hadn't killed his victims, or made them pregnant.
Local villagers told the newspaper that Zeng was a silent man but he often had quarrels with his wife before they got divorced. Zeng also ran a shop renting out pornographic videos. He was to tell police later than he had committed his crimes because he watched too much porn.
Zeng's lawyer had argued that Zeng had a serious mental illness, which should be considered in the verdict, but the court didn't accept that defense because Zeng's crimes were well-planned and his confession well-organized and logical.
Zeng and his lawyer had also failed to provide strong evidence in court to support their claim.
The Wuhan Intermediate People's Court on Sunday also found Zeng Qiangbao, a worker at the Wuhan Jingding Industrial Furnace Co, had committed nine other rapes and two robberies between 2007 and 2010, Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.
Zeng kidnapped the women, aged about 20, in September of 2008 and July the next year and they had been chained up in his basement in Qingshan District for 590 days and 317 days respectively. The women, whose identities were not disclosed, said they suffered hunger, torture and sexual harassment before they were rescued by a repairman who saw their note hidden in a broken TV in May last year.
During the court hearing, Zeng denied the procuratorate's accusation that he had raped the women more than a hundred times, but he admitted he had never thought of releasing them.
Zeng raised an oral appeal immediately after the verdict was announced, claiming he had a mental disease and applying for a judicial appraisal of his mental situation. He also claimed his crime didn't deserve the death penalty because he hadn't killed his victims, or made them pregnant.
Local villagers told the newspaper that Zeng was a silent man but he often had quarrels with his wife before they got divorced. Zeng also ran a shop renting out pornographic videos. He was to tell police later than he had committed his crimes because he watched too much porn.
Zeng's lawyer had argued that Zeng had a serious mental illness, which should be considered in the verdict, but the court didn't accept that defense because Zeng's crimes were well-planned and his confession well-organized and logical.
Zeng and his lawyer had also failed to provide strong evidence in court to support their claim.
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