Teen raped by man, police can't do much

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20110707-287931.html

Zhengzhou - "I was abducted by someone and the pain in my heart will last a lifetime! It's so hard to talk about " wrote Yang Xiaolong (not his real name) on his Tencent QQ, a popular instant messaging platform in China.

The 15-year-old from Xinmi, Henan province, fell victim to a rare case of same-gender sexual assault on the night of June 8, when 29-year-old Li Mu, the suspect, allegedly dragged him into his car at knifepoint and "raped" him in a nearby mountain area. The boy was held captive for six hours, and was not released until 5 am the next morning.

Huge controversies arose when reports said the local police, who claimed they could not find laws relating to forcible sex between people of the same gender, decided to put the suspect, who was detained on June 19, into administrative detention for only 15 days, a much lighter punishment designed for those guilty of misdemeanors.

According to Article 236 of China's Criminal Law, only women are defined as victims in the crime of rape, while the crime of coercive indecency toward children in article 237 does not define the age of a child and only juveniles under 14 are regarded as children in judicial practice.

"The police told me that despite the vile nature of the crime they could only detain the suspect for 'acting indecently toward other people', according to the relevant laws," said Jin Hongbing, Yang Xiaolong's uncle, who bought a law book, exhausted himself searching for relevant laws online and consulted several lawyers after the attack on his nephew, in an attempt to ensure the suspect received a heavier punishment.

"We could find no similar file cases and didn't know where to start," said Wei Wei, a spokesperson with Xinmi police. "Such a case is rare in China, so we dealt with it very cautiously."

According to Wei, the police sought instructions from higher authorities and held meetings with prosecutors to define the nature of the crime but received "quite different opinions".

The suspect was not transferred into criminal detention until Monday, only a few hours before he was to be released from administrative detention. The police said they had collected enough evidence by then to prove him guilty of "illegal detention".

"So far what we believe is that the suspect committed illegal detention and (we believe the judge) will give punishment according to the serious nature of the crime," Wei said, sidestepping the sexual assault part.

Jin Juhong, 45, did not know about her son's painful experience until the boy's elder sister, who inquired about it on seeing his QQ message, told her about his ordeal two days after the "rape".

"At first, his sister thought he was kidding," recalled the mother, who could not believe her ears, when she learned more through Yang Xiaolong's uncle, whom the boy trusted more than his parents.

"He covered his face when we tried to ask any more about it," said the mother, who took her son home on June 17 from Xinmi city, which is about 30 kilometers from their village. Yang had gone to Xinmi last year to receive training at a garage after dropping out of middle school. He boarded at his uncle's home there.

"Now the entire village knows it, and maybe the entire province of Henan," said Jin.

On Monday, in the 100 square meters or so of the muddy courtyard of their shabby cave-styled house, Yang Xiaolong's agitated family, including his parents and his 86-year-old grandmother, received psychological and legal counseling from a legal aid team and two psychological consultants.

However, the boy was lying alone in his bed, even refusing to talk to the psychologists.

"He used to be an obedient and sociable boy, but now he barely talks," Jin said, adding that Yang Xiaolong had stayed indoors, mostly on his bed, since returning home.

"The boy is in an awful mental condition," said one of the psychologists, Lu Jie, a senior counselor with Henan Psychological Research Institute.

"He is under great pressure and refused to talk with us. After all, it's very shameful in traditional Chinese culture to suffer sexual assault, especially for a boy," he said.

Lu added that the team members had tried to ease the extreme anger of the victim's family, as it might have reminded the boy of his ordeal.

"We also encouraged his parents to take him out, because a new environment will help to heal the trauma."

Yang's grandmother Li Rongzhi, said the boy had told her he wanted to become a monk because he felt too ashamed to see anyone.

Li still bursts into tears whenever she talks about this tragedy. "I brought him up, and it hurts so much to see him become like this."

Fearing his son might "go to extremes", Yang Xiaolong's father stays with him during the night, while his mother sleeps on the ground by the bedside.

"He wakes up and screams with nightmares, and all we can do is to tell him not to think too much about it," the mother said.

"The suspect should be severely punished for the mental suffering he has caused my son," Yang's father said. "He was so vicious, and there must be other victims."

They revealed that the suspect accidentally told Yang Xiaolong that he once assaulted a 9-year-old boy. However, the police said they have not yet found any evidence of this.

"But the police didn't detain the suspect until June 19 even after his car was spotted," said Jin Hongbing, the boy's uncle. "I think they didn't take it seriously until the media covered the case."

Jin added that he had prepared materials to prove the suspect guilty of "illegal detention" much earlier but the local police would not agree with him.

Under a request from the victim's family, the police have carried out an AIDS test on the suspect.

"We have our reasons for worrying about this," Jin Hongbing said.

Although the suspect was transferred into criminal detention, the family claimed they are still unsatisfied. The suspect, who owns a restaurant in the city, is married with a child, according to police officer Wei, who refused to disclose more details. Another police officer in charge of the case refused on Tuesday to reveal its details and any late developments because they were still "investigating and collecting evidence". However, "now it's about how we should understand the nature of the case instead of collecting evidence", said Wei Guangyang, of the Henan Yinji Law Firm, who volunteered to provide legal aid to the victim's family after learning of the case. Wei discussed the case with legal experts, who agreed that the suspect might be at least guilty of illegal detention. But he insisted that the suspect's behavior could amount to sexual assault and that he was making efforts with the victim's family to bring a civil suit against the suspect for compensation. Currently, only women are defined as the victims of rape in China's Criminal Law due to old concepts and the fact that such cases rarely occurred in the past. "Obviously it's not appropriate," Wei said, adding that the criminal laws in many European countries treat both genders equally in such crimes. "As our society progresses and people have more tolerance toward homosexuality, such criminal cases are likely to increase in China, so we should amend this legislative bug in the future," Wei said