Violent dad jailed after whipping 12-year-old daughter to death (Sichuan Province, China)

Dad LIU KANG has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the beating death of his 12-year-old daughter. He was divorced from the girl's mother, and obviously had some ongoing visitation/custody rights (and in fact APPEARS to have been custodial) despite a KNOWN history of family violence and a previous assault conviction. This poor girl had tried to leave this home on other occasions, only to be returned by the police.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Crime/Story/A1Story20100124-194071.html

Violent dad jailed after whipping girl to death

Sun, Jan 24, 2010
China Daily/Asia News Network

A migrant worker from Sichuan province who beat his 12-year-old daughter to death last year was sentenced to 10 years in jail, Tongzhou district court ruled Thursday.

Liu Kang, 43, beat his daughter to death for suspicion of theft on July 25 at their rented apartment in the district, the Mirror Evening News reported.

At about 9:30 am, Liu said he discovered that his daughter Liu Lin, a child with his ex-wife, had stolen from a neighbor.

Liu was said to have slapped his daughter repeatedly in the face until she tried to escape the flat. He then tied the girl to a ladder and whipped her with a 1-m-long rubber pipe.

The court heard that between each strike he asked Liu Lin to confess, but she would not.

The girl finally admitted the theft at 11 am and was released from the ladder. After giving her some water, Liu placed her on a sofa and went out to buy some medicine.

He reportedly returned at 12:30 pm to find the girl unconscious. He carried her to a hospital and she died 40 minutes later.

"I did not intend to beat my daughter to death," Liu told the court Thursday, according to the Mirror Evening News.

He claimed his daughter had lied frequently and left home several times. Police always brought her home, but theft was a common issue.

Prosecutors told the court they knew Liu regretted killing his daughter, but the brutality was unforgivable, according to the newspaper.

Liu came to Beijing in the 1980s from Nanchong, Sichuan province. He has run several businesses including interior decoration, cold drink sales, and a restaurant in the city.

His former wife was his school classmate. They had two daughters, but separated in 2000 and divorced in 2008.

A couple of months after the divorce he married a second woman from his hometown. When they returned to Beijing, his elder daughter, Liu Jie, left home.

Liu Kang's brother, Liu Zhi, said his brother was very violent and had beaten everybody in their family, including their father.

Liu had previously been convicted of assault in 1994 and sentenced to two years in jail.