Man who killed 8 kids blames girlfriend for it

BEIJING - A mentally-unstable man who stabbed eight schoolchildren to death in China has put the blame on the woman who “dumped” him.

Former community doctor Zheng Minsheng, 41, who was sentenced to death Thursday for murdering the eight children March 23 in China’s Fujian province, admitted in court that he “intentionally” killed them at the gate of the Nanping Experimental Elementary School.

Zheng, however, asked the court to pay more attention to what prompted him to commit the crime, rather than to the crime itself.

“I’m willing to shoulder the responsibility for what I did, but only for 30 percent. The other 70 percent should go to the woman who dumped me,” Zheng was quoted as saying by China Daily Friday.

The doctor said he just wanted an ordinary life like others, but failed. He felt his life was meaningless as he was not married, had been unsuccessful in relations with women, his family and in his career.

He repeatedly told the judge that he had been turned down by a woman and suffered unfair treatment from her wealthy family, which prompted him to carry out the attack.

Families of the victims attended the trial and expressed their anger afterwards. The mother of a child still under observation at a hospital’s intensive care unit, could not help sobbing in court. “Where’s his remorse,” she asked. “He deserves death.”

During the hearing Thursday, prosecutors played 15 video clips, totalling 55 seconds of footage, showing Zheng stabbing children with a knife as they arrived at the school. Other evidence, including the knife, bloodstained clothes and school bags of the victims, were also presented in court.

Families of the eight students killed have each received more than 260,000 yuan ($38,100) in compensation from the government, authorities said Thursday.