Society
Kindergarten attacker sentenced to death
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-17 07:12
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TAIZHOU, Jiangsu - A local court on Saturday sentenced to death a man who attacked and injured 29 children and three adults last month at a Taixing township kindergarten.
Xu Yuyuan is the second to receive the death sentence following five separate attacks on children across the country in less than two months.
The Taizhou Intermediate People's Court found Xu guilty of "intentional homicide" after a half-day open trial, which was attended by some 300 people.
Xu, who was unemployed, admitted in court his motive behind the attack was to vent his rage against society. However, he appealed the death sentence, saying the punishment was too severe, as no one had died in the attack.
Describing Xu as "savage", a victim's father said: "It (the punishment) cannot be anything other than death."
"He (Xu) can appeal, but I believe he will still get death," another victim's parent said. "He does not want to die, but we won't let him live."
Twenty-nine children and three adults were injured when Xu attacked them with a meat cleaver on April 29 at Zhongxin Kindergarten in Taixing township. No one died in the attack, but most of the victims suffered cuts to the head, neck or chest.
By Saturday, only one child remained in the intensive care unit of Taixing People's Hospital. The other children had been transferred to ordinary wards and nine had already been discharged, Zhu Guiming, a local government publicity official said.
"It is a miracle no one died," said Chen Rong, a prosecutor with Taizhou People's Procuratorate, who praised the police and the medical team.
A previous police investigation said Xu had been jobless after being fired from a local insurance firm in 2001.
The court found Xu carried out the attack after he lost some money gambling and failed business start-ups, in addition to other setbacks in his personal life.
Reading out the verdict, the judge said Xu could not handle his frustrations and vented his rage against society in such a way that could not be tolerated.
"Considering the attempt was hideous, the act brutal, the impact serious, the court decided to hand down a stricter punishment according to the law," the court said.
Brutal attacks on children over the last two months in China have left 17 dead and scores injured.
In the latest atrocity, a 48-year-old man killed seven children and two women with a meat cleaver on May 12 at a kindergarten in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.
In the first case, Zheng Minsheng, 42, murdered eight children in March outside their primary school in East China's Fujian province. He was executed on April 28.
The suspects in the other three cases have yet to stand trial.
State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu has ordered the police to cooperate with education authorities to search more rigorously for security risks around kindergartens and schools.
During his visit to kindergartens and primary schools in North China's Shanxi province from Thursday to Saturday, Meng also urged local authorities to mobilize social forces to secure a safe environment for kids.
Xinhua
