After Zhou, a man born in the 1990s, and Huang, a female anchor, became boyfriend and girlfriend, they had conflicts many times. When the two were solving economic and emotional problems in their relationship in a hotel, Zhou committed violence and had sex with Huang many times.
On June 27, a reporter from Red Star News learned from the China Judgment Documents Network that the People’s Court of Zhushan County, Hubei Province, recently made public the first-instance judgment of the case. The procuratorate accused Zhou of rape and illegal detention. The first-instance judgment believed that the prosecution’s accusation of Zhou’s rape could not be established due to insufficient evidence, and sentenced Zhou to 8 months in prison for illegal detention.
Case:
The man and the female anchor had conflicts after falling in love
Accused of rape and illegal detention
The 33-year-old Zhou is from Ankang, Shaanxi, and was engaged in exterior wall paint construction in Xi’an before the incident. The judgment revealed that in January this year, the People’s Procuratorate of Zhushan County filed a public prosecution, accusing Zhou of rape and illegal detention.
Regarding the prosecution’s charges, Zhou had no objection to the charges and facts of his crime of illegal detention. But he argued that he did not constitute rape.
The court found out that Huang was from Zhushan County and was an online anchor. In the first half of 2023, Zhou and Huang met through a short video social platform and began dating. During this period, Zhou repeatedly gave gifts in Huang’s live broadcast room, and the two later developed a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. The two had conflicts many times during their relationship due to economic and other reasons. In September last year, after another conflict, Huang blocked Zhou’s contact information.
On the evening of October 19 last year, Zhou went to Zhushan County to find Huang to solve the economic and emotional problems of their relationship. At about 8 o’clock on October 20, after the two had breakfast together, they came to a hotel room where Zhou was staying. Zhou asked Huang to marry him and live with him in Xi’an; or Huang issued him an IOU and found someone to guarantee it, and then the two broke up. The two negotiated in the room and had a dispute. At around 18:00, the two walked out of the room and entered the hotel elevator to go out, and they quarreled. Zhou then hugged Huang’s neck and dragged her out of the elevator and forcibly took her back to the room. The two had a physical conflict in the room. Zhou pushed and strangled Huang and other violent behaviors to prevent her from leaving. At around 22:00, after Huang’s friend Zhang called Huang, Zhou was dissatisfied with Huang’s contact with other men, so he beat and strangled Huang. At around 23:39, Zhou filmed Huang’s nude video.
From around 1:37 to 2:50 in the morning of October 21 last year, the two continued to argue. During this period, Zhou wanted to leave, and Huang was worried that he would be upset and tried his best to stay. Later, the two talked in a calm tone. At around 3:00 in the morning, the two voluntarily had sex. At around 9:34, Huang sent a WeChat message to Zhang, “Call the police for me, I was kidnapped and beaten.” From 10:37 to 10:44, Zhou asked Huang to record a voluntary repayment video. At about 13:00, Zhang saw the WeChat message sent by Huang and called the police. At about 13:18, the police arrived at the hotel room and conducted an investigation.
Zhou’s illegal detention and violence against Huang caused Huang to suffer multiple injuries. After identification, Huang suffered contusion of soft tissue in the left temporal region and contusion of soft tissue under the left clavicle, and the degree of injury was minor; the right mandibular skin was abraded, which did not constitute a minor injury.
The court also found that from 8:00 on October 20 last year to 13:00 on October 21, Zhou and Huang had sex several times in the hotel room. At about 14:23 on October 20 last year and about 8:44 on October 21, Zhou left the room for 7 minutes and 9 minutes respectively. On March 31 this year, Huang issued a written letter of understanding to forgive Zhou’s behavior.
The verdict also revealed that Huang stated that Zhou gave her gifts worth about 120,000 to 130,000 yuan on a short video social platform. In July last year, she lost nearly 20,000 yuan playing cards, and Zhou transferred 5,000 yuan to her and directly transferred 10,000 yuan to the person who won her money. In addition, she took 1,000 yuan from Zhou’s boss and 500 yuan from a co-worker for playing cards, all of which were recorded in Zhou’s account.
First trial:
The accused of rape was not established
The man was sentenced to 8 months for illegal detention
The court believed that both parties acknowledged that sexual relations occurred from October 20 to 21 last year. The key is whether it violated Huang’s will, which requires a comprehensive analysis and judgment based on the relationship between the two parties, the behavior before and after the sexual relations, and other factors. According to the facts found during the trial, Zhou’s confession, Huang’s statement and objective evidence, it can only be proved that Zhou took Huang back to the room from the hotel elevator and strangled her, and that the two had sex within two days, but it cannot be proved that Zhou used violence against Huang in order to have sex with Huang.
The recording on Zhou’s mobile phone submitted by the public prosecutor stated that from 1:37 to 3:00 a.m. on October 21 last year, the two continued to quarrel. During this period, Zhou mentioned many times that his previous violent behavior such as strangling Huang’s neck was mainly because Huang deceived him, contacted other men and prevented Huang from leaving before resolving their affairs; during this period, Zhou wanted to leave, Huang tried to keep him, and the two reconciled and had sex again. At the same time, the recording reflects that during this period, Huang was not in a state of “always in fear, dared not resist Zhou’s requests, and allowed him to beat and scold” as the public prosecutor accused.
According to the content of the recording and the evidence in the case, Huang and Zhou had voluntarily had sex twice in the hotel room on October 20. After Zhou used violence against Huang, took nude photos and insulted him, Huang still chose to forgive Zhou and voluntarily had sex with him again. During this period, Huang did not call the police or leave when he had the opportunity to do so, and Zhou tried to keep him when he wanted to leave. Therefore, based on the special relationship between the two and their previous dating experience, it is impossible to determine that the two violated Huang’s will when they had sex during the period of time involved in the case.
At the same time, the recording also confirms the authenticity of Zhou’s mention that he committed violence against Huang because Huang was in contact with other men. However, the incident during the recording period stated by Huang to the public security organ was quite different from the content recorded in the recording. In addition, Huang first clearly stated to the public security organ that Zhou raped her for the first time shortly after he brought her back from the elevator on the afternoon of October 20 last year, and raped her for the second time after recording the video on the morning of the 21st. Huang stated to the public security organ for the second time that Zhou raped her three times, but failed once. Huang also stated in court that Zhou raped her twice, and then had sex with Zhou once in order to coax Zhou to escape from the room. Huang’s statements before and after were unstable and contradictory.
Therefore, the court believes that the evidence of the public prosecutor’s accusation that Zhou used violence to force Huang to have sex with Huang based solely on Huang’s statement is insufficient and cannot meet the standard of excluding reasonable doubt. Sexual relations during illegal detention do not necessarily constitute rape, and the existing evidence is not sufficient to prove that Zhou had sex with Huang by coercion or other means during the illegal detention of Huang so that Huang could not or dared not resist. Therefore, the public prosecutor’s accusation that Zhou committed rape cannot be established and is not supported.
The court also held that Zhou illegally restricted the personal freedom of others due to the relationship between a man and a woman, and used violence to cause minor injuries to others, and his behavior constituted the crime of illegal detention. In view of the fact that the illegal detention in this case was caused by the conflict between a man and a woman, Zhou truthfully confessed the criminal facts of illegal detention after being arrested, and voluntarily pleaded guilty and accepted punishment, and has obtained the victim’s forgiveness, so he can be given a lighter punishment according to law.
Based on this, on April 18 this year, the Zhushan County People’s Court made a first-instance judgment, sentencing Zhou to 8 months in prison for the crime of illegal detention.
