Testimony of victim helps convict child trafficker who operated in 1990s
Yu Huaying is sentenced to death by a court in Guizhou province on Monday. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
A 59-year-old woman who abducted and trafficked 11 children in the 1990s for financial gain was pronounced guilty and sentenced to death on Monday by a court in Guizhou province.
The Guiyang Intermediate People's Court announced the death penalty for Yu Huaying, a native of Yunnan province, after determining that her conduct — seeking illicit benefits by abducting and trafficking children from Chongqing and Guizhou to Hebei province between 1993 and 1996 — constituted the crime of child abduction.
The court said in a statement that Yu carried out the abductions with the help of a man surnamed Gong, who died before the case was heard in July. Two other people who participated in the abductions have been dealt with in separate cases, it added.
"Considering the large number of children Yu abducted and the fact that her offenses were extremely serious and had a great negative effect on society, we decided to harshly punish her and arrived at the judgment," the court said.
The court also stripped Yu of her political rights for life and ordered all her personal assets to be confiscated.
Yu said she will appeal in a higher court.
The case attracted wide public attention in June 2022 when the police in Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou, received a report from a woman who said she had been abducted more than two decades ago. The victim, identified as 33-year-old Yang Niuhua, was abducted by Yu from Guizhou and taken to Hebei in 1995 where she was sold for 3,500 yuan ($480), according to her report.
Yu targeted children who were about five or six years old, luring them with candies from crowded places like railway stations.
Over the years, Yang, a native of Guizhou, never stopped searching for her family. In April 2021, she posted a short video on Douyin, a popular Chinese video-sharing and livestreaming platform, in which she spoke about her abduction and how she had made every effort to find her family.
Within a month of the video being shared, Yang connected with her family following a successful DNA match.
In June 2022, she returned to her hometown and went to the Guiyang police to provide clues about her abduction. Soon after that, Yu was captured in Chongqing.
She was charged in February, and the intermediate court heard the case in July.
On Monday, Yang and her lawyer Wang Wenguang were also present in the court to hear the judgment being announced.
"My client and I are both happy with the ruling, as Yu's crime deserves the capital punishment," Wang told China Daily.
Wang welcomed the efforts that have been made in recent years to combat child abductions, including increasing punishment for those who buy abducted children and using latest technology to search for missing children.
"People from all walks of life should attach greater importance to the issue, with more aid and care provided for the victims," the lawyer added.
Before being handed the death penalty, Yu had been punished twice before for indulging in similar activities. In 2000, she was arrested in Handan, Hebei, and served a two-month detention in relation to child abduction offenses, according to a report in The Paper, a Shanghai-based news outlet. The reason for her release then was not mentioned.
In 2004, she was caught by authorities again for abducting children in Yunan province. At that time, she was operating under a fake identity and was sentenced in that name to eight years in prison for child abduction.
Subsequently, her sentence was reduced by three years, though the reason was once again not reported. After her release, she had been unemployed, the report said.
