Woman sentenced for abducting child at rail station

A woman who tried to abduct a 2-year-old girl at the Shanghai Railway Station was sentenced to one and a half years in jail, the Jing'an District People's Court heard on Tuesday.

According to prosecutors with the Shanghai Railway Transport Procuratorate, the 41-year-old woman, surnamed Qiao, saw a girl named Wu toddling at the entrance of a KFC restaurant at 5:38pm on December 16 last year.

When Wu's family was distracted, Qiao scooped the girl up and attempted to carry her away by force. Wu's mother and grandmother soon noticed and fought with Qiao to get the child back.

Qiao was eventually subdued and taken to a police station.

During the hearing, Qiao's lawyer tried to seek leniency by saying that Qiao is a first-time offender and her crime was only attempted.

Ding Dehong, deputy head of the court and judge of this case, said that since Qiao claimed that she wanted to "adopt" the girl, and no evidence shows that she intended to sell the child, the crime could only be considered an abduction rather than trafficking.

Under the nation's criminal law, an abductor can be sentenced to detention or imprisonment for up to five years. Child traffickers can be subject to jail terms over five years, and serious offenders can even sentenced to death.