19 years in prison for the man who killed a little girl in a sugarcane field

(Baonghean.vn) - Seeing a 14-year-old girl looking for a buffalo, Hieu teased her and caused her to fall. Afraid that the girl would tell her family, he killed her.

On September 23, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced Ha Van Hieu (born 1992), residing in Soi village, Yen Hop commune, Quy Hop district, to 19 years in prison for murder.

The jury also requested the investigation agency to continue completing the case file and prosecute Hieu for rape.

Ha Van Hieu at court.

During the investigation, on the afternoon of November 25, 2012, when Ha Van Hieu was eating sugarcane in a sugarcane field of a household in the village, he met VTN (born in 1999, living in the same village) looking for a buffalo. Meeting Hieu, N. asked, "Have you seen my buffalo?". Hieu answered, "No," then joked that he was herding buffalo and let the buffalo go looking for someone. Seeing N. still continuing to look for the buffalo, Hieu broke a small stick and pretended to hit him, then teased him. Seeing that, N. shouted, "Get out of the way, I'm going to look for the buffalo" and quickly ran away. Seeing that, Hieu continued to run after him to tease him. Suddenly, N. fell to the ground and foamed at the mouth.

At this time, Hieu ran back to N. and heard another person walking towards the sugarcane field. Fearing that N. would wake up and tell her parents that Hieu had chased her away, he strangled her to death. After committing the crime, Hieu threw N.'s sandals and hair tie into the bushes.

That afternoon, N.'s relatives did not see him anywhere so they went looking for him and discovered the incident. The next day, Hieu went to the police station to surrender.

Five months ago, the People's Court of Nghe An Province brought Hieu to trial for murder. Here, the lawyer defending the victim's rights presented evidence asking the court to clarify whether Hieu had committed rape in addition to murder. The panel of judges returned the case file, requesting a reinvestigation. After that, the investigation agency decided to separate the murder case to try first, and the rape case would continue to consolidate the case file for prosecution.

At the trial on September 23, Ha Van Hieu bowed his head, admitted his guilt and asked the court to reduce his sentence.

Nguyen Khoa