Kidnapper killed baby, court hears

By Xu Fang  |   2008-6-21  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A FARMER from Shandong Province faces the death sentence for allegedly kidnapping and strangling a 14-month-old girl to death.

Tang Shunhong, 21, was charged with kidnapping and robbery, and prosecutors yesterday suggested the death sentence at Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court. No verdict was announced yesterday.

Tang argued in court that he didn't intend to kill the girl. The former restaurant worker kidnapped her from a former colleague, Liu Deming, who appeared quite rich, the court heard.

The suspect went to Liu's home in late January on a pretext to look around the place, he told judges.

The next time he went, on February 2, he wore a mask to avoid being recognized by Liu's mother-in-law Shi Chunhua.

He first demanded money from her but she refused. Tang then hit Shi over the head with an iron pipe. When Liu's daughter came in, crying, he picked her up and ran away, prosecutors alleged.

Tang escaped to a small garden where the girl kept crying. Since some people were approaching, he allegedly strangled the baby with a rope to stop her from making a sound. When the walkers passed by, he released the rope but found the baby was dying.

"I was too scared to notice I strangled her neck too tightly. I tried to save her life with artificial respiration but failed," Tang told the court. "I didn't intend to kill her at all. I wanted to exchange her for money."

Tang allegedly threw the girl into a drain after he thought she couldn't be saved. The girl was found dying from suffocation.

"The suspect is so cruel that he abandoned the girl in the drain when he couldn't make sure if she had died or not," the prosecutor said.

Despite the girl's death, Tang tried to call Liu the next day to demand 30,000 yuan (US$4,360) ransom.