Beijing teacher sentenced to 12.5 years in jail for raping student, 17

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A Beijing teacher was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison on Tuesday, after he was convicted of molesting and raping a high school girl.

Zou Mingwu, 39, molested a 17-year-old girl and forced her to have sex with him several times since March 2016 after the girl’s parents hired him as a private tutor, said Haidian District People's Court in the verdict.

Zou Mingwu, a former high school teacher, was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for molesting and raping a 17-year-old girl. /Beijing Morning Post Photo

Zhou was also barred from working with minors for five years after completing his jail term.

It was the first time a Beijing court has issued such an order, according to a report by Beijing Morning Post.

"Considering the specificity of Zou’s profession, the court decided to set a working ban. The ban aims to prevent him from committing further crimes to minors,” said Qin Shuo, the chief judge of the court’s juvenile tribunal.

Statistics from the Supreme People's Court released in June show that courts nationwide sentenced 10,782 cases relating to juvenile molestation between 2013 and 2016.

Efforts to protect minors from potential sexual assault have been made by many provinces, including setting special supervising schemes and strengthening relevant education in schools.

Cities like Shanghai and Qingdao have already banned people convicted of sex-related offenses from entering professions that have close contact with juveniles.