In August 2015, I came to the Public Prosecution Division has been most of the year. One day, my colleague Yang Hongming invited me to hold court together – to open the general court must be 2 prosecutorial police.
“It’s the case of the rape of a second-year student that we arraigned together last time, the suspect has not confessed to the crime, is a brute.” Yang Hongming just graduated from college, before the implementation of the case rotation system, many rape cases were handled by Yang Hongming – at that time, a total of seven people in the Public Prosecution Division, four people are unmarried women, not quite suitable for this type of case.
A month or so ago, I heard Yang Hongming call the public security communication “Ge Hui suspected rape” case. During that time, Yang Hongming seemed to be extraordinarily serious about the case, even the attitude of the phone with the detention center is unusually serious. The victim is a 14-year-old student, and her rape suspect has been bad attitude, refusing to admit guilt, Yang Hongming both angry at the arrogance of the perpetrators, but also worried that because of the evidence to let the perpetrators go free under him.
“Must go to do handwriting identification.” By handwriting identification, Yang Hongming was referring to his signature on the registration book of Ge Hui’s hotel stay that day. This was also the first time I knew of the existence of this case.
1
Sexual assault cases, especially rape crimes generally occur in private places, the lack of human and physical evidence, the reliance on the testimony of both parties involved in the case is higher than in other cases. The ideal state of evidence is for the victim to have resistance wounds on her body and to call the police at the first opportunity after the crime, if so, even if the suspect denies everything, it will not help.
However, this case was reported to the police only on the third day after the crime, and there were no obvious injuries on the victim when the police were called. Therefore, it is particularly important to obtain a confession from the suspect.
In the detention center, I met Ge Hui. From his appearance, it was difficult to link this white, handsome and well-mannered young man with the alleged rapist of a minor. He looked younger than his actual age (32) and had been working in real estate sales for many years, with a shrewdness characteristic of a businessman.
Previously, Ge Hui refused to admit guilt in all three statements at the public security investigation stage, and was very determined. The immediate performance is also exactly as we expected, “I did not rape, I have not seen the little girl who sued me, no impression of her at all.” He said with great certainty, “Much less have sex with her.”
“Ge Hui, please think carefully before you answer my questions, your words are legally responsible. Did you have a room in Jia Feng Hotel on the night of July 31, 2014?”
Ge Hui is not in a hurry to say: “I can’t remember, I had a car accident in September 2014, and I can’t remember many things.”
“That license plate number XX car is not you have been driving?” At that time, the intersection of the surveillance video recorded the car carrying Ge Hui and the victim together from KTV to Jia Feng Hotel’s traffic track.
“I can’t remember, the middle of this car also lent to a friend to drive, in July 2014 that time can not remember to give no one else.” Ge Hui’s answer seems to be dripping with water.
After explaining the difference in sentencing between a truthful confession and refusal to admit guilt, several efforts, Yang Hongming gave up efforts to obtain a guilty plea from the other side.
“It does not matter if he does not confess, we use other evidence to convince him.” Yang Hongming remained confident. I also quickly had my own judgment: Ge Hui’s performance precisely shows that he was not wrongly accused, because he did not have the slightest anger, resentment after being wrongly accused, there is only self-righteous sophistry. Compared with his performance in court afterwards, he is indeed rational and calm.
2
According to the available evidence, we have roughly restored what happened in the summer of 2014.
In the summer, Zhou Honghong, a second-year student who had just celebrated her 14th birthday, was hooked on a dating App that featured a variety of different people, making her feel very new.
Soon, she got acquainted with Ge Hui, whose screen name is “Simple Life”. As a real estate salesman, Ge Hui in the community for many years, naturally know how to please girls, often to Zhou Honghong hush and warm. The first thing you need to do is to get married and still look for girls to chat with on dating sites, the purpose is self-explanatory.
The day of the murder, Zhou Honghong played at the home of his friend Wu Xiaowang. When the “simple life” asked Zhou Honghong cell phone number, Zhou Honghong very hesitant, in the other side of the hundred urges, the Wu Xiaowang home landline number to him.
The phone rang, Wu Xiaowang smoothly picked up, “white feather? We don’t have this person here.” She was just about to hang up when Zhou Honghong walked over and took the phone.
In the phone, “simple life” invited Zhou Honghong to meet with her, said to invite her to eat spicy hotpot.
“The first not, the night is not very convenient, I have to go home later.” Zhou Honghong refused, thinking at the time that if she went back late, her mother Han Ling would surely scold her. Zhou Honghong’s family is very ordinary, her parents are working people.
“Just a moment, I’ll drive to pick you up. After eating, I’ll send you home right away.” The other end of the phone didn’t want to give up, “I have a friend following along. It’s okay.”
Zhou Honghong hesitated for a moment or agreed, she thought it was just a meal. Wu Xiaowang asked her what she was going to do, and she said, “To meet a friend who will take me home.”
Zhou Honghong walked alone to the intersection and waited for a while, a silver gray car slowly stopped in front of her. “Little feather, get in.” The middle-aged man in the driver’s seat rolled down the window, and there was indeed another person sitting in the passenger seat, and Zhou Honghong entered the car.
“Do you work or go to school?”
“School.”
The two chatted casually in the car as it drove into the night, farther and farther away from Zhou Honghong’s home. After entering the city, Ge Hui parked the car in the KTV parking lot and took Zhou Honghong and his friend Wang Tao to a spicy hotpot restaurant behind the KTV. When finished eating, a little more than 8:00. Ge Hui proposed to the two: “Let’s go singing, just in front of the KTV.” Zhou Honghong was not too reluctant.
“Let’s just sing for a while, and then send you home.” The company’s first meeting was held at the KTV, where it ordered some beers, “the first time we met, how can we not drink?” The company’s main goal is to provide the best possible service to its customers.
Soon, after being poured a few cups by Ge Hui, Zhou Honghong is a little confused. That night, Zhou Honghong drank a total of five bottles of beer.
Late at 11:00 pm, they walked out of KTV, Ge Hui helped walk has been staggering Zhou Honghong on the car, “you drink like this, do not rush home, let’s find a place to rest.” Said also regardless of Zhou Honghong promised not to, took her to the hotel.
According to Zhou Honghong recalled afterwards, she drank too much wine, has been trying to get Ge Hui to send her home, Ge Hui just mouth promised. See the two into the small hotel, Wang Tao will own a taxi away.
3
Zhang Yong opened a small hotel next to the train station, business has been bad not bad. That night, in time for the Oktoberfest, his business is surprisingly hot, just after a busy period of time he was lying down at the register to rest, you hear someone pushing the door and enter.
A look up, a middle-aged man holding an obviously drunk girl came in, the man wanted to register for a room. The man’s ID card how can not brush out information, Zhang Yong took a look at the computer, think is the registration system is broken, only to ask the man will be the name and ID number written in the book.
“Because that day there is a large event, my hotel have been full of guests, when only this single room left, I that hotel is usually rarely full of guests, a year is so many days can be full, so I remember especially well.” In court, in the face of Ge Hui lawyer’s question, Zhang Yong seriously explain, why after 3 months, he can still remember the situation, “I said only a small room left, ask them if they want to live, the man said yes, and said ‘she drank too much, I can not get her, temporary stay for one night, as soon as the day dawned to leave ‘. So, this is why I remember so solid.”
Zhou Honghong in the victim’s statement, recalled what happened that night.
In the room, Ge Hui’s original form was revealed. Drunk Zhou Honghong simply powerless to resist, was Ge Hui forced to undress, Zhou Honghong kicked him with his feet, grabbed his back, but he still entered her. And at this time, Zhou Honghong just passed his 14th birthday. Perhaps, in Ge Hui’s impression, this is an ordinary “dating” experience, but for Zhou Honghong, this is a day to look back on.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers. She knew something bad had happened, but didn’t know who to talk to. Her mother, Han Ling, was distraught over her daughter’s absence all night. When she saw her daughter coming back with a tired face, she kicked her daughter in anger and anxiety, “What have you been doing?” Her daughter didn’t say anything and went back to sleep. Seeing that her daughter was in a bad state, Han Ling did not pursue the matter further and went to work.
When she got home from work, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that something was wrong and wanted to talk to her daughter. The first thing she noticed was that she had logged her daughter’s qq on her phone – she had left her phone at home when she was in a hurry to go to work in the morning – and her daughter’s QQ chat with her friend took the mother by surprise: her daughter was asking her best friend how to have sex after contraception.
Suspect in sexual assault case refuses to admit guilt
Han Ling furiously pushed open her daughter’s bedroom door, Zhou Honghong was lying on the bed, “What’s going on?” She asked her daughter, pointing to the chat log in her phone.
Zhou Honghong suddenly burst into tears: “You think I want to? I don’t want this either.”
“Then what’s going on?” Han Ling had changed from anger to worry for her daughter.
“He came hard.” Her daughter’s four simple words stated the nature of this relationship – a sexual crime.
After saying that, Zhou Honghong fell on her bed and cried very hard. Han Ling knew that her daughter was not lying this time, she knew her daughter, Zhou Hong Hong used to be naughty and not very obedient, but every time she made a mistake and disciplined her, she never denied it, she had a kind of daring character.
Han Ling was heartbroken and angry and asked her daughter, “Why didn’t you call the police?”
Zhou Honghong cried a mess: “The phone is in arrears ……”
The day before yesterday, her daughter asked Han Ling to help charge the phone bill, she felt nothing, and did not rush to charge, which thought it would happen? Although the cell phone is in arrears can also call the emergency number, but Zhou Honghong did not know at the time.
The company’s main business is to provide a wide range of products and services to its customers.
The reason for this is that Han Ling was so angry that she called the police with her husband. The next day, took her daughter to the hospital for an examination, the medical records show that Zhou Honghong’s hymen ruptured.
The police identified the suspect, Ge Hui, according to the cell phone number provided by Zhou Honghong’s Internet friend. But Ge Hui is like evaporated, has not reappeared. Until one day in November, the police through the technical means of close monitoring, found Ge Hui’s QQ number in a small residential area of the city logged in, the police quickly rushed to the login site, will be home to the Internet Ge Hui arrested.
In the public security investigation stage, Ge Hui did not admit to knowing the victim, let alone forcing the victim to have sex with him.
After carefully reviewing the file, Yang Hongming asked the public security to add evidence – in the previous file, the witness Wang Tao’s statement was incoherent, and did not identify the victim. After explaining the importance of this evidence, the police acted quickly, Wang Tao finally identified the victim, in the new transcript also described in detail they drank together, watching Ge Hui holding the unconscious Zhou Honghong into the specific circumstances of the hotel.
So far, this case has a hotel accommodation registration, surveillance video (record tracks) and other objective evidence, can confirm that Ge Hui took Zhou Honghong from KTV to the hotel check-in; there is Zhang Yong’s testimony, can confirm that when entering the hotel Zhou Honghong has obviously in a drunken state; there is Wang Tao’s testimony, confirming that Ge Hui did let Zhou Honghong drink, and Zhou Honghong walk has been obviously drunk; finally, there is mother Han Ling and girlfriends and other witness testimony, can confirm the performance of Zhou Honghong after the relationship.
As a rule, criminal cases must be handled with care and caution. A passionate sense of justice alone does not really achieve fair justice. The truth of the case and the provisions of the law, which is the premise and basis for the accurate characterization of the case. The only thing that can restore the truth of the case is the evidence. This case is different, as long as there is evidence to confirm the relationship, the victim was in a drunken state unable to resist, the suspect constitutes a crime, and this case even without Ge Hui’s guilty confession, the chain of evidence has been complete.
4
On the way to court, Yang Hongming has been frowning. He was worried that the opposing lawyer would really find a loophole to get off the hook and let Ge Hui get away with it.
The need for a complete chain of evidence to confirm that sexual relations took place against the will of the woman, which is the difficulty in handling rape cases. And this can not just listen to the woman’s side of the story, if there is evidence to the contrary must be beyond reasonable doubt.
There are many reasons for reporting a rape to the police afterwards, such as a falling out between the two parties over a demand for payment, or a husband finding out that he was desperate to “clear his name”, and it is common for one party to claim to have been raped and report it to the police while the other party argues that both parties were consensual. If you can not exclude possible reasonable doubt, the investigating authorities failed to add to the strong evidence, the case can only do not prosecute – we are afraid that the other side has evidence against the hands.
I met with the victim, Zhou Honghong, who had dropped out of school at the time of the incident. Ge Hui and family members are determined to overturn the case from the field to hire two lawyers, looking across the lawyer’s desk thick materials, Yang Hongming and I know that the upcoming is a “vicious battle.
After the trial, Ge Hui and his lawyer to provide us with each piece of evidence are objections, “battle” once into a stalemate.
After the reading of the indictment, the presiding judge asked Ge Hui, as usual, what opinions he had on the facts and charges charged in the indictment, and before the words fell, Ge Hui said loudly, “I plead not guilty! He then pointed to the victim who appeared above the courtroom, “I hadn’t seen her before the police caught me!” The victim was stunned, and Zhou Honghong’s parents were furious.
In accordance with legal procedures, the prosecutor Yang Hongming has asked Ge Hui three questions: whether he knew the victim, whether he had dinner with Wang Hui, and whether he had a room that night on July 31. Ge Hui only admitted that he had dinner with Wang Hui, and denied the other two questions.
Of course, we are not worried about his denial, because we have a lot of evidence in hand to confirm that Ge Hui’s answers are not true.
Then, entering the courtroom investigation stage, we began to adduce evidence, and the defendant and his defense formally “short-handed”.
“Show the documentary evidence Jia Feng Hotel July 31, 2014 passenger accommodation information registration.”
“Does the defendant have any objection?” Presiding Judge Guan Xiaoning asked Ge Hui.
“There are objections! The hotel owner said that the system of swiping ID cards was broken is not true, you can go to other hotels to check whether the system was really broken on July 31, 2014. In addition, the words on the black registration book are not written by me.”
“The defense agrees with the client’s opinion that the authenticity of this evidence is in doubt.” The lawyer is “helping”.
Yang Hongming, who had already been prepared, did not panic because of their “attack”: “Show the handwriting identification report, confirming that the signature on the register is consistent with the handwriting of the defendant Ge Hui, confirming that the defendant left.” This evidence was carefully prepared for Ge Hui’s defense, after finding that Ge Hui could not confess, Yang Hongming and the public security organs for detailed communication, so that the public security organs supplemented this material, the scene “face” Ge Hui.
I saw Ge Hui’s two lawyers quickly looked at each other, both of them showed a shocked look. I realized that the two lawyers may really feel that their client was wrongly accused.
“Produce a copy of the victim’s outpatient medical record.” This medical record was provided by a well-known local hospital, “confirming the victim’s visit.”
“There are objections, the words written on the medical records are not recognized by anyone.” Ge Hui questioned with a serious face. Many doctors’ words on the medical records are dragon-flying, and the medical records in this case are no exception, but if carefully identified, the contents on them are not difficult to read, and Ge Hui’s challenge is not so strong.
The defense also raised doubts: “This medical record is not an identification report to prove that it is not caused by sexual relations with the defendant.”
The problem is that we simply do not use this medical record as an identification report. I glanced at Yang Hongming, who frowned somewhat helplessly, “This medical record only proves the victim’s visit, and the contents written in the medical record are relatively clear.”
After reading the testimony of the hotel owner Zhang Yong, Ge Hui continued to raise questions: “Zhou Honghong had recounted the day loudly called for help and violently resisted, but in the dead of night, the hotel owner did not hear the call for help, which is obviously illogical.”
“Draw the defendant’s attention to the evidence testimony to prove the matter, the testimony only proves that the witness Zhang Yong saw the defendant helped the drunk victim into the hotel room, and not directly prove that the defendant raped the victim. Cry for help and injuries and the boss heard no relationship, to know the room and the front desk there is a distance. Whether to confirm the rape is a comprehensive case of evidence to determine, not a particular evidence can be confirmed.”
“Zhou Honghong said I picked her up in an SUV, and my car was a three-car Focus. She said my car was gray, but in fact my car was a sunshine brown.” Ge Hui “righteously” refuted the authenticity of the testimonies one by one. Indeed, the car company’s claim is “sunshine brown”, but the actual appearance of the car is close to the silver gray.
“In terms of verbal evidence, the victim’s statement and witness testimony in some facts not directly related to the facts of the crime there are certain differences, are logical. The victim is a girl who just turned 14 years old, she has no concept of the car, for the color of the car, the victim said the color although there are differences but very similar to the color of the actual car, these differences prove the legitimacy of the investigative authorities to take evidence.” Yang Hongming immediately made a reply.
In order to confirm the day of the crime on July 31, Zhou Honghong answered the phone when the circumstances related to Ge Hui, the police obtained the testimony of the people present at the time, not expecting these testimonies to become the focus of Ge Hui’s side of the attack, or borrowing.
After reading out the testimony of Wu Xiaowang to prove that she received a phone call to Zhou Honghong, Ge Hui seems to have immediately found a point of attack: “Zhou Honghong’s confession (in fact, the word can not be used for the victim) mentioned Wu Xiaowang mixed with society, Wu Xiaowang and social acquaintances better, from which it can be seen that Zhou Honghong likes to social children, the unruly hooligans The fact that Zhou Honghong can prove that Zhou Honghong and simple, do not know anything to hang.”
Zhou Honghong was only 14 years old, Ge Hui was already 32 years old, in this relationship, who is in a dominant position is very obvious.
Yang Hongming some can not suppress their anger, he paused and began to reply: “the defendant said from the testimony can see that the victim likes to socially inappropriate people, I do not know where the defendant from see?” He stared at Ge Hui and said in a smooth voice: “Even if it is a prostitute, if you take violence or force to have sex with her, it constitutes rape, not to mention that the other party is a student who just turned 14 years old.”
Ge Hui was busy to move his gaze away from Yang Hongming.
Then the defense said on the side, “the witness (Zhou Honghong’s best friend) is the victim’s friend, and the time to make a statement is in May 2015, the case has been through several court hearings and investigations, according to the prosecutor provided before the victim and the witness had contact during the trial, so do not exclude the possibility of their previous collusion, the witness testimony should be found The witness testimony should be considered invalid.”
I find it somewhat amusing that “the evidence was obtained by the investigator in accordance with the law, and the possibility of collusion raised by the defense is its subjective conjecture, without relevant evidence to confirm.” If the lawyer’s logic is followed, almost no witness testimony is valid, because most of those who can testify will have parties to associate with, and even friends can’t testify, and others can’t testify even more.
“Witness testimony precisely confirms that the victim is a girl who likes to play dating sites, often go out to meet online friends, the number of people she meets online friends should be a lot, from the side, the girl is not as simple as its age, she should know what will happen if you go out to dinner, singing, room, further confirming that the case is not established. ” It seems that the defense also adopted the same strategy of “personal attacks” as the defendant.
“The defense’s claim of collusion is a subjective assumption, not supported by relevant evidence.” At first, I thought that the lawyers were just exercising their duties, but now I think that the professional ethics of these two lawyers are flawed, and they are worried about their quality as they are willing to tamper with the original meaning of the witnesses’ testimonies in order to attack the victims.
It is true that when the defense opinion is published, the defense will be “the defendant usually behaves well, honest, no criminal record” as the important basis for Ge Hui does not constitute a crime in the end, so we feel a little helpless. Just because he did not commit a crime before, he could not commit a crime afterwards?
Finally, Yang Hongming expressed his opinion: “from the evidence in this case, although the defendant refused to admit guilt, but the victim’s statement and the testimony of relevant witnesses corroborate each other, forming a complete chain of evidence to confirm the basic facts of the case of singing, drinking, room, sex, please judge the defendant guilty of rape in accordance with the law. “
This is the end of the first session.
5
The second session, the trial court approved the application of Ge Hui’s side, the hotel owner Zhang Yong, his “former” friend Wang Tao (because Wang Tao did testimony against Ge Hui, Ge Hui already hate him to the bone), Zhou Honghong’s best friend all to the court to testify.
The first time the trial began, Ge Hui will “fire” attack focused on the victim Zhou Honghong and witnesses. The first thing you need to do is to get ready for the next round.
The first to testify is Zhang Yong, facing the judge and the victim, the defendant, Zhang Yong detailed recollection of the situation, and the file at the time his testimony is basically the same.
“He lied! Why is the registration system so coincidentally broken?” Ge Hui shouted with a red face, his anger clearly tinged with an overacting exaggeration.
“It did break down that day, that’s why I used the notes.” Zhang Yong’s emotions were not affected by the defendant, “I didn’t even know you before, there was no reason to lie.”
Zhang Yong, as an outsider to the case, there is really no reason to frame Ge Hui, who has no grievances.
When Wang Tao came out to testify, Ge Hui stared dead at Wang Tao the whole time, his eyes seemed to be on fire, he tried to interrupt Wang Tao several times, were stopped by the judge.
“Wang Tao you dare to look at me to answer? Why did you set me up?” Finally waiting until Ge Hui could speak, he asked impatiently, his tone full of anger and resentment. But I still heard the lack of breath in his questioning.
Wang Tao turned his head, faced squarely into Ge Hui’s angry gaze, and said almost word for word, “I’m telling the truth, not framing anyone.”
See Wang Tao’s performance is not impatient, not panic, Ge Hui some discouragement. He turned his head to the “gun” aimed at the victim who is not yet an adult, “Judge, you see what the victim looks like? So fat, I’m really not interested.”
Zhou Honghong’s father was so angry that he trembled, “You bastard!” An expletive came out of this honest man’s mouth, he should be furious to the extreme. I shook my head gently, in order to get off, Ge Hui was getting more and more bottomless.
“Please observe the courtroom order!” The presiding judge gave a heavy blow to the hammer in front of him, stopping this meaningless “war of words”.
Ge Hui’s party’s plans were completely unsuccessful, they tried to make the witnesses’ testimony unstable through the courtroom atmosphere to find loopholes, but did not expect all the witnesses to express themselves very clearly, they did not succeed. The police also confirmed in court that there was no illegal forensics during the interrogation of Ge Hui, who was full of resentment towards the police: “Because of you, I have delayed the sale of tens of millions of dollars!”
“I’m not convinced!” He persisted to the end. Everything settled with the court verdict, Ge Hui was sentenced to five years in prison for rape in the first instance.
Unwillingly Ge Hui appealed, the Intermediate Court upheld the original sentence in the second instance, Ge Hui finally paid the price for his actions.
(The names of people and places in the article are pseudonyms)
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