BEIJING (SCMP): Mainland social media has been appalled by surveillance footage of a 14-year-old boy assaulting a seven-year-old girl in the lift of their residential building.
The boy was placed under administrative detention by the police in eastern China’s Jiangxi province after the footage was published online and triggered public fury.
The teenager, surnamed Liu, followed the girl, surnamed Wang, into the lift on the evening of Nov 2.
Liu immediately placed his hand over Wang’s mouth and nose after the lift door closed, choking her.
He dragged her out of the lift after it reached the first floor. Wang’s mother, surnamed Li, said her daughter passed out for a few seconds and began to cry after she awoke.
Startled by Wang’s crying and a resident passing by, Liu released the girl.
Li said her daughter suffered nightmares after that and had to skip school.
The Beijing News reported that the police seized the boy and released him within 24 hours because the age of criminal liability is 16 in China.
As a neighbour released the footage online and sparked public outrage, the police announced on November 4 that they had arrested the teenager for assault, and held him under administrative detention, which according to the law would not be longer than 15 days.
China’s criminal law stipulates that juveniles aged 14 to 16 face criminal punishment for serious offences, such as intentional homicide and injury.
Lawyer Zhang Yonghui from Zhejiang Tiequan Law Firm told mainland media outlet Dahe Daily that Liu committed the crime of child molestation, which usually leads to five years in jail, but Liu would not face legal consequences because he was younger than 16.
Zhang said Liu might be sent to reformatory after being released.
The neighbour who published the video said the offender’s family apologised in the residential compound’s social media group two days after the assault.
They said the boy had been well-behaved and was only “bewitched”.
They also sent in the group chat a video of the boy being beaten by his family, and promised to send him away to another city after he is released.
“His family was irresponsible in justifying his wrongdoing as ‘bewitched’, and was even more wrong planning to send him away rather than educating him,” an online observer said.
“The law should keep pace with the times as minors are getting exposed to unfiltered information on the internet at a younger age. A crime without consequences would lead to more serious problems in the future,” another said.
China amended its criminal law in 2021, lowering the age of criminal responsibility for intentional homicide and injury by extremely cruel means from 14 to 12. - South China Morning Post/ANN
