14-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Raped by KTV Staff After Drinking in Hebei

A 14-year-old girl in Quzhou County, Hebei Province, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male KTV staff member after she had been drinking at the venue, The Paper reported yesterday.

The victim's mother said that the suspect, a man surnamed Huang, worked as a waiter at the Xingyuetonghua KTV. She alleged that Huang took her daughter to a nearby hotel and raped her. Following the incident, the girl has been in poor mental health and is currently hospitalized for treatment.

Huang has been arrested under suspicion of rape. The KTV was ordered to close and fined 400,000 yuan (US$58,640) for illegally admitting and selling alcohol to minors, while the hotel was suspended from operation for two months and fined 20,000 yuan for failing to verify parental consent for the girl’s stay, a joint investigation team formed by the county government said in a statement today.

According to the victim's mother, surnamed Cao, her daughter Qingqing (pseudonym) was socializing with friends at Xingyuetonghua KTV on the evening of January 16. She returned home the following afternoon. She told her mother that she had woken up in a hotel room without clothes and realized she had been raped.

"It was the KTV waiter who took her away," Cao said. She immediately took her daughter to the police to report the crime. Police accompanied Qingqing to the Yuxi Hotel to identify the scene. Cao also reviewed surveillance footage, which showed a man checking in at the front desk before dragging the unconscious girl by both hands from a vehicle into the hotel room.

Cao said her daughter, a ninth-grade student, did not know the suspect. On the night of the incident, Huang was working at the KTV's front desk, handling billing and alcohol sales.

The county police issued a forensic identification report stating that human semen detected on the girl's underwear matched Huang's DNA on April 16.

The victim's mother said her daughter has been in poor mental health since the incident and has exhibited self-harming behavior. She was diagnosed with "anxiety and depressive state" at a hospital in Hebei. On April 13, Cao took her daughter back to the hospital, where she is now receiving inpatient treatment.

In China, it is prohibited for KTV venues to admit minors under 14 or to sell alcohol to individuals under the age of 18.