A Chinese teacher has been sentenced to death for raping 18 female primary school pupils in north-western Gansu Province.

Cheng Laifu, a teacher at a school in Changhe Township under the jurisdiction of Dingxi City, was convicted of raping a total of 18 grade three and four — aged nine to ten years — pupils on 70 separate occasions between September 2001 and March 2005, the Western Economic Daily based in Gansu’s provincial capital of Lanzhou reported.

Cheng forced or lured the children into his dormitory or office under the pretext of tutoring them before committing the crimes, the report said, citing a statement from the Dingxi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court.
“Cheng’s crimes have had an extremely negative impact on society,” the statement said.

But an official with the county education bureau refused to provide more details about Cheng and the name of the school. Sources said the court had conducted a closed-door trial, Xinhua reported. In July 2005, school teacher Li Guang, also from Changhe Township, was sentenced to death for raping 23 pupils in grade four and five between September and November 2004.