Charity webiste owner suspected of sexual assault

A Chinese man who runs a charity website that raises money for rural girls in education, has been in police custody since late August after allegations of rape came to light, local authorities said Friday.

Wang Jie, who established the charity website in 2006 to help poor girls return to school in the remote city of Baise in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is accused of raping several underage girls, according to the Longlin Autonomous County government on Friday.

A Guangxi TV news network uncovered the crime on Aug. 13, alleging that over the past nine years Wang had forced girls to have sex with him and some donors in return for education grant. Local police detained Wang immediately after the show aired.

Wei Xing, head of the county's public security bureau, called on all the victims and their families to come forward if they had any information.

A member of the public had informed the authorities about the alleged sexual assault after donating to the charity.

The police are interviewing the informant, and have arrested another suspect implicated in the case.

Wu Zaijie, deputy head of the county's education bureau, said the government had offered education grants worth a total 38,750 yuan (around 6,250 U.S. dollars) to ten of the victims.

"The website was not registered with the authorities," said Yang Chaofang, deputy head of the local civil affairs department.

"There is no particular law banning fundraising websites. We hope the government will strengthen supervision to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again," said Du Peirong, a lawyer from Guangxi. Endi