Parents' custody revoked for sexual abuse, abandonment

Landmark ruling follows new rules on abuse of minors

A local court in Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province on Wednesday has ruled that custody of a 10-year-old girl be transferred from her parents to the local civil affairs department after it was proven that the girl had suffered from sexual assault and abandonment. It was the first such ruling in China.

The people's court of Tongshan district in Xuzhou upheld the request of the district civil affairs bureau to revoke the custody rights of the parents of Xiaoling (pseudonym), Shao and Wang, and appointed the bureau as her legal guardian, read a court statement.

It is the first case in China in which civil affairs agencies filed to revoke parental custody after new guidelines on guardian abuse to minors took effect this year.

Shao and Wang separated when Xiaoling was 2 years old. She lived with her father Shao in Xuzhou and was initially under the care of her grandparents, while her mother Wang lived in her hometown of Jiaozuo, Henan Province, starting a new family.

Shao started to raise Xiaoling on his own after both grandparents died and had repeatedly beat and raped her in the past two years.

The starving girl escaped from home in late 2013 and asked a neighbor for food. The neighbor, a woman surnamed Zhang, took her in after Xiaoling refused to go home and gradually recounted her ordeal.

Zhang reported the matter to the police in June 2014. The father was sentenced to 11 years in prison in October 2014 for rape and child molestation.

Xiaoling's mother never visited her daughter since the separation in 2006 and refused to raise Xiaoling during the father's criminal investigation, citing incapacity as she suffers limb paralysis and intellectual deficiency, the court said.

The new guidelines issued in December state that guardians who sexually assault, sell, abandon or abuse minors will be deprived of custody. The court filed the case on January 7, the same day the Tongshan civil affairs bureau issued the application.

Investigation shows that Shao was willing to give up custody, while Wang and her relatives refused to raise Xiaoling. The girl told the court via video stream during the trial that she wants to stay with Zhang.

The civil affairs bureau allowed Zhang to be the girl's foster parent. The bureau said it will provide subsidies and arrange for Xiaoling's psychological consultations and education.

Li Xiaoxia, Xiaoling's lawyer who specializes in child protection, said that the case is groundbreaking, as civil affairs authorities step up efforts to protect minors when there are no appropriate guardians.

"In the long term, social workers for minor protection should be sent to the communities to conduct early evaluations, but public education is crucial in raising parents' awareness that children are not their assets that can be treated indiscriminately," she noted.