Trespasser, attacker gets lenient sentence after victims' forgiveness

A 36-year-old man who broke into his ex-girlfriend's home and stabbed her new boyfriend in the abdomen was sentenced to seven months in jail for trespassing, the Jing'an District People's Court announced on Wednesday morning.

Since the man surrendered himself to police and received forgiveness from his victims, he got a lenient sentence, the court said.

According to prosecutors, Ci Weizhi went to the residence of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Meng, in Jing'an District at dawn on July 23. He broke into the flat and there he found his former colleague, surnamed Sun, who is Meng's current boyfriend.

Ci attacked Sun and used a knife to stab Sun's right abdomen. After the attack, he stayed at the scene until police arrived.

Ci's family compensated Sun and Meng with 35,000 yuan (US$4,995) and 6,000 yuan respectively for their medical treatment and mental suffering. The two victims then wrote statements that they forgave Ci.

Luo Hong, the chief judge of this case, told Shanghai Daily that the injuries Sun sustained were not serious enough to sentence Ci for intentional injury.