Molested his sister when invited to her birthday party

Many heartbreaking incidents

At about 9:00 p.m. one day in July 2020, Luong Van Cong (residing in Nam Nhoong commune, Que Phong) drove a motorbike to the house of LTN, born in 2005, residing in Chau Thon commune to attend a girl's birthday party. After attending the birthday party, Luong Van Cong drove a motorbike out to play, and at about 1:00 a.m. the same day, Cong returned home and saw LTN (15 years old), the birthday girl's younger sister, sleeping on the floor. Cong solicited N for sex. The incident was later discovered by N's mother.

On August 1, 2020, LTN's family representative filed a complaint with the Investigation Police Department of Que Phong District Police about Luong Van Cong's behavior. On the same day, the Investigation Police Department of Que Phong District Police detained Luong Van Cong in an emergency to investigate and clarify. Afterwards, the People's Procuracy of Que Phong District decided to prosecute Luong Van Cong before the People's Court of Que Phong District to try the accused Luong Van Cong for the crime of "Having sexual intercourse with a person from 13 to under 16 years old" as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 145 of the Penal Code.

Defendant Luong Van Dau. Photo courtesy of Nhu Binh

Previously, on June 22, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendant Luong Van Dau (born in 1993), residing in Dong Van commune, Que Phong district, for the crime of "Raping a person under 16 years old". The incident occurred when Luong Van Dau invited LTL (born in 2013), who lived in the same village, to visit a wild animal trap. When arriving at a deserted forest area, this young man sexually assaulted the child. To conceal his crime, Dau gave L. 10,000 VND and told the victim not to tell anyone. However, Dau's actions were later exposed, and Dau was sentenced to 20 years in prison and had to pay the defendant 30 million VND in compensation.

Not only in Que Phong, in June 2020, in Yen Thanh district, there was also a child abuse case that shocked public opinion in a rural area. The perpetrator was Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung (born in 1950, residing in Van Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district). In his confession, Mr. Hung admitted that on the afternoon of June 9, when he went to his neighbor's house to play, he saw a 9-year-old girl studying alone, so he had the intention of sexually abusing her. After that, Hung told the victim not to tell anyone and then left. However, in the evening, afraid that what he had done would be exposed, Mr. Hung wrote a confession. Mr. Hung also admitted that he had sexually abused the girl 3 times. Meanwhile, the victim reported that Mr. Hung had seduced her 8 times. In addition to the above incident, Mr. Hung also admitted that he had sexually abused another 8-year-old girl living in the same neighborhood.

Nghe An has 838,050 children under 16 years old; of which 103,443 are minors aged 16-18. In 2019, authorities discovered and handled 46 cases and 55 subjects related to violence and child abuse. This number in 2020 was 38 cases and 42 subjects.

Strict punishment and widespread propaganda

In the first 10 months of 2020, Nghe An Police discovered, prosecuted, and investigated 38 cases, 42 defendants for crimes against children; of which, 32 cases, 33 subjects sexually abused children; 01 case, 02 subjects bought and sold children; 05 cases, 07 subjects committed murder, intentionally caused injury to children. At the same time, organized 3 rounds, successfully rescued 9 children who were lured and lured by bad guys to leave home, work as karaoke hostesses in Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa provinces...

The People's Court of Nghe An province has also tried cases of violations of children's rights (the victims are children). Specifically, the People's Courts at two levels have accepted 31 cases/33 defendants where the victims are children, and have resolved 31 cases/33 defendants. Of which, the crime of rape of people under 16 years old has been tried in 14 cases/16 defendants;Copulatewith people under 16 years old, 7 cases/7 defendants were tried; Obscenity with people under 16 years old, 8 cases/8 defendants were tried.

In 2020, the penalties applied to defendants who committed the crimes of child rape and child abuse that the Provincial People's Court applied included: suspended sentence: 1 defendant, imprisonment from 3 years or less: 15 defendants, imprisonment from 3 - 7 years: 12 defendants, imprisonment from over 7 years to 15 years: 3 defendants, imprisonment from over 15 years to 20 years: 2 defendants.

In addition to detecting and strictly handling violators, propaganda work is also focused on. In 2020, the Department of Culture and Sports built 10 models of preventing and combating domestic violence, linking propaganda and education on family ethics and lifestyle. The Provincial Women's Union opened training courses to improve propaganda skills.Children's Lawfor 40 provincial reporters, more than 400 district reporters and nearly 3,000 commune-level propagandists and collaborators in blocks, hamlets and villages; directing all levels of the association to organize 1,260 communication sessions on "Children's Law" and "Children's Rights". In addition, organizing 42 forums to prevent and assist children suffering from violence and sexual abuse, forums for children; organizing 560 sessions to educate on life skills, self-protection skills, prevention of abuse and accidents.

The message that children should not keep silent has been mentioned many times in recent communication sessions on preventing child sexual abuse. Photo courtesy of My Ha.

The Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is the "main" unit for coordination between levels and sectors on implementing children's rights and protecting children. Ms. Le Thi Nguyet - Head of the Children's Department -Gender equality(Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said that, fully understanding the importance of propaganda work, in 2020, departments, branches, units and localities had many measures and forms of propaganda to prevent and combat child abuse, protect children and contribute to preventing crimes related to child abuse.

In addition to coordinating with departments, branches and localities, the Department has directed and guided the mobilization of resources to support and help children in special circumstances with nearly 14 billion VND, thanks to which in 2020 it has helped 7,500 children in special circumstances and children in difficult circumstances in the province. "In the coming time, the Department will continue to coordinate with all levels and branches to promote the good implementation of Resolution No. 121/2020/QH14 dated June 19, 2020 of the National Assembly on continuing to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of implementing policies and laws on preventing and combating child abuse; Directive No. 23/CT-TTg dated May 26, 2020 of the Prime Minister on strengthening solutions to ensure the implementation of children's rights and child protection" - Ms. Nguyet said.