Train police clear passenger of indecency with daughter

A high-speed train passenger filmed engaging in indecent conduct with his 5-year-old daughter will not be charged, said Nanchang railway police, provoking outrage among Chinese net users.

In a statement Wednesday, police noted the father was investigated for indecent conduct with the girl on the G1402 high-speed train from South China’s Guangdong Province to East China’s Jiangxi Province, but that his behavior did not constitute a crime.

A video shot by a passenger on the train showed the girl, who did not have a seat, being embraced by her father. The father then lifted up the girl’s clothes, touching and kissing her back. The girl resisted and tried to avoid him.

A witness said the girl kept saying “no,” but the man did not stop, according to newspaper Dushi Kuaibao.

The crime of “indecency with children” refers to obscene conduct, not including sexual intercourse, toward children with the aim of stimulating or meeting sexual lust, Sun Xuemei, one of the founders of the Beijing-based Girl’s Protection Foundation, told the Global Times on Thursday.

“There must be a boundary between fathers’ and daughters’ bodies, which is very important to children’s privacy cognition,” Sun said.

On China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo, people poured scorn on the official statement and lambasted the father’s conduct.

There is no specific regulation that defines “indecency with children,” said Lü Xiaoquan, a Beijing-based lawyer.