Following a series of sexual assaults against children, China's supreme court vows crackdown

BEIJING – China's Supreme People's Court has vowed to crack down on crimes against children, publicizing punishments meted out in three recent cases, including the execution of a grade school teacher who repeatedly raped seven students.

The announcement, reported Wednesday on the website of the party-run People's Daily, appears to be in response to public outrage over a recent series of reports of sexual assaults against schoolgirls.

At least four primary school teachers have been detained this month for allegedly sexually molesting young students — some as young as 8 years old.

In the two other cases announced by the top court, a woman was sentenced to death for fatally abusing her 5-year-old step-daughter and a man was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for instigating teenagers to commit crimes.