An 18-year-old man and his 23-year-old friend have been each sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for pimping out their underage teenage girlfriends and robbing their clients, local media reported.
The two defendants, who were not identified, came to Shanghai under the guidance of a mutual friend, an unidentified 22-year-old man, according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post. The 22-year-old persuaded the newcomers that they could make money by forcing their girlfriends, a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old, into prostitution.
After the 15-year-old girl got pregnant, the 22-year-old came up with the idea of using the pregnancy to blackmail one of the men she had slept with.
On July 9, the man met with the 15-year-old in a hotel room. Her boyfriend, posing as her brother, beat up the man and forced him to withdraw 60,000 yuan ($9,774) and $3,000 from a nearby automatic teller machine.
The 15-year-old and her boyfriend gave the other couple 5,000 yuan and planned another robbery.
Two days later, they caught another man using the same ploy. This time, both the 18-year-old and the 23-year-old showed up, each carrying knives.
They threatened to hurt the man if he refused to hand over money to deal with the girl's pregnancy.
The three ended up in a fight, but the victim managed to escape. He did leave behind a gold chain, which they later sold for 13,000 yuan.
Both robbery victims reported their cases to the police, who caught the two couples at their home in Minhang district on August 1.
The 22-year-old, who police said planned the robberies, remains at large.
Qingpu District People's Court sentenced the 18-year-old to 14 years in prison and gave the 23-year-old a sentence of 13 years. The court fined the 15-year-old girl 3,000 yuan and sentenced her to three years in prison, but the sentence was suspended.
The 14-year-old girl was not tried in the same case as the three others.
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