Court rejects appeal of child abductor

A Chinese court on Thursday upheld the death sentence for Yu Huaying, 60, convicted of abducting and trafficking 17 children over a decade.

The Guizhou High People's Court rejected Yu's appeal and affirmed the earlier ruling by the Guiyang Intermediate People's Court, which sentenced her to death in October. The lower court found that Yu and her accomplices abducted children in Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, and Chongqing between 1993 and 2003 and sold them to buyers in Hebei province.

The court said Yu's crimes devastated 12 families, some of whom spent years searching for their children. Others suffered fatal consequences, such as depression, the court said.