Accused rapist appeals death sentence

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BEIJING, April 18 (UPI) -- A 46-year-old Chinese farmer, convicted of raping more than 100 women during a 16-year period, has appealed his death sentence.

The man from eastern Anhui province was sentenced to die in December for raping and attempting to rape 116 women and robbing 91 of them between 1993 and 2009, China Daily reported Tuesday. The higher people's court will hear his appeal but the date of the hearing was not announced, the report said.

Police began looking for the serial rapist in July 2008 after a complaint from a 49-yer-old woman that a man wearing a mask and wielding a knife had entered her home and attempted to rape her while her husband and son were away.

She said she began to scream, which caused the attacker to flee. Later police found many women in the province's Linquan County, many of them wives of migrant workers away from their homes, had similarly been attacked but chose to remain silent because of the social stigma.

It was not clear how police finally caught up with the accused, described by his lawyer as being short, introverted and "honest-looking."

"But we were surprised when he told us he had raped about 100 women," a police official said, adding the victims ranged from very young girls to women in their 50s.