Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Deyang, Sichuan, China · 2019

China: fake monk given a suspended death sentence for rapes under exorcism and luck-changing rituals

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

impostor posing as a Buddhist monk offering 驱鬼 (exorcism), 转运 (luck-changing) and 封痣 (mole-sealing)

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The rituals were the access and the threat of supernatural punishment was the silence — belief operating at both ends of the crime.

  • Exorcism or deliverance
  • Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-12-01 · conviction and suspended death sentence

    Deyang Intermediate People's Court, Sichuan, China. A man who had briefly been ordained at a Zhejiang temple in 2006–07 and later posed as a monk offering exorcism, luck-changing and mole-sealing rituals was convicted in December 2019 of rape, forcible indecency and child molestation — raping five victims on ten occasions, including two girls under fourteen on six occasions, and molesting three children on seven occasions. He received a death sentence with a two-year reprieve and lifetime deprivation of political rights. He had silenced victims by warning of divine retribution.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • ritual services as the route to victims
  • warnings of divine retribution — that a victim who spoke would be hit by a car

Primary record

Sources

official court release reference case entry Supreme People's Court: reference-case entry.

The apex court's own case database.

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report The Paper (澎湃新闻): court report.

National outlet's court reporting.

Related record

Related cases · Buddhist institutions and contexts

← Explore all cases