Child molester sentenced to solitary confinement during French colonial period
The Reform Law enacted in 1912 stipulated that suspects of molesting children under 13 years old, even if they had not committed the act, would be sentenced to prison.
According toTrung Hoa DailyIn 1929, Nguyen Van Thi (30 years old) visited Nguyen Thi Nguyet's house in the same neighborhood in An Bien, Hai Phong. Seeing that the whole family was away, only Nguyet's daughter, who was not yet four years old, was lying on the bed, Thi picked her up and played with her. Nguyet happened to be coming home and caught Thi preparing to commit an indecent act.
Thi confessed to having perverted intentions and was sentenced to five years in prison even though the girl had no signs of sexual assault.
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Trung Hoa Daily newspaper published a child molestation case in Hai Phong in 1929.Photo: Ta Thu Phong. |
In 1933, the Ninh Binh court tried the case of Pham Huu Tien who attempted to rape a young girl. The defendant had been in the army for eight years and, because of his good conduct, was taken in as a servant by the Ninh Binh warden, Ledain. In the warden's house, there was a 12-year-old maid.
One day, while the girl was taking a nap in her room, Tien rushed in and started teasing her. Because of the screams, another soldier ran in and took the child out. Although he had not raped her, Tien had done it on purpose and was sentenced to one year in prison.
The appeals court found that Tien had eight years of military service and had done nothing wrong, so he was given a suspended sentence.
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Trang An newspaper published the case of a coolie who hanged himself after failing to rape a girl. |
According to the newspaperTrang AnIn 1937 in Vinh, a man working as a rickshaw driver carried a 12-year-old girl into the garden at midnight with the intention of raping her. The girl escaped into the house and told her boss. Although the rape of the girl failed, the rickshaw driver was so scared that he hanged himself. Therefore, both families agreed not to sue.
In the early 20th century, the French colonial government in Vietnam severely punished child rape. In 1912, the Governor General of Indochina amended the French Penal Code into the Reformed Penal Code, applied in Cochinchina, which stipulated: "The crime of adultery with children, any boy or girl, under 13 years old, whether it was committed or not, without raping the child, must be imprisoned in solitary confinement."
In 1921, the Governor-General of Indochina issued the Annam Penal Code to be implemented in Tonkin. This law stipulated that anyone who commits adultery with a girl under 15 years old must be punished as a criminal (imprisoned and given hard labor in prison); if the adultery is not complete, the penalty is from three to five years in prison.
