'Virgin prostitute' claims police coercion
In the latest twist in an already confusing plotline, the 16-year-old girl at the center of the so-called 'virgin prostitute' case is now claiming that Kunming police coerced her into confessing to being involved in an alleged prostitution scheme.
Chen Yan, who police say was forced into prostitution by her father Liu Shihua, told China Daily that she only confessed to being a prostitute to obtain leniency from police:
I was detained and interrogated by the police for more than a week. They told me if I admitted I was a prostitute, we could all go free.
I had admitted to everything without knowing what prostitution was. But now I want my father out. I want to tell the truth, that I was never a prostitute.
Chen's case gained local and national media attention after her father Liu claimed that she had been arrested for prostitution by the Kunming police after a March altercation with law enforcement officers involving her father, her father's girlfriend Zhang Anfen and her father's friend Pu Enfu.
Liu produced what he claimed was medical documentation from a Kunming hospital proving that Chen was a virgin, after which police launched a new investigation into the case.
In June, Kunming police claimed to have solved the case, saying that the medical documents were faked and that Liu and Pu had confessed to forcing Chen into prostitution in October of last year. Liu is still under police custody.
In a Tuesday press conference, Kunming police said that no confessions had been forced out of anyone involved in the case. A police spokesperson also struck out at media for running "biased" reports of the case.
Chen told China Daily that she had been entertaining a man at home on the night in question, but that he was a friend, not a client. However, Chen reportedly could not remember the man's name.
Lawyers for Liu and Chen told China daily that Chen had slept with "some guys" but was not charging money for sex. They added that Chen had "beaten the girl many times to warn her not to have sex or develop any relationship with riffraff on the streets".
This article was posted by Chris and published July 9, 2009
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