Teacher charged with 24 rapes

2005-02-22 07:55

Beijing - A schoolteacher in northwestern China's Gansu province has been arrested for allegedly drugging and raping 24 young students over a one-year period, state press reported on Tuesday.

The teacher, identified only as Liu, tricked, drugged or raped the girls at the school in Changhe village, Tongwei county, the Chongqing Evening News reported.

Liu, 35, was in charge of the school's evening tutorials and the night watchman for students who slept overnight at the school as boarders.

He was arrested in December, it said.

The girls were all aged between 12 and 14, with one girl reportedly raped five times and another girl at least three times, the report said, without saying when the assaults took place.

One girl said that she was given sleeping medicine one evening and the next morning found herself naked next to Liu, who then threatened her not to tell anyone of what happened, the report said.

After a 12-year-old girl accused Liu of raping her, 15 parents protested to local education authorities, but they refused to immediately take action due to Liu's history of mental illness which prevented them from intervening, it said.

Residents were cited as saying it took "a long time" before education authorities took any action, without giving further details.

China has experienced a wave of violent school attacks in the past six months which prompted officials to launch a nationwide inspection of campuses and school employees' backgrounds from October to December.

Authorities shut down 10 000 kindergartens and 2 000 elementary and middle schools and sacked 27 000 staff following the inspections, state media has reported.

- AFP