Woman’s father held after fight with alleged sex attacker

A woman, who claimed she was sexually assaulted on a public bus on Monday in Fengtai district, has appealed for help after her father was detained for attacking the alleged suspect.

Web user "Yaowaiwai" posted Monday evening that the alleged suspect had "rubbed" against her and another female passenger. She called her father to meet her at the bus terminal, who confronted the man. The woman said the father and the suspect pushed each other, which then evolved into a fight.

She later posted her father had been detained overnight at Liuliqiao police station, Fengtai district, for fighting with "a pervert."

She posted a picture of the alleged attacker with a bloody nose, captioned "the harasser."

No other passengers would testify to the sexual assault, she wrote, which has put her and her father in a difficult situation.

This includes the other female passenger who had claimed the man had bothered her too, and an older woman who had seen the incident and had comforted her.

All the woman's microblog posts were deleted on Tuesday afternoon, and later on she posted from Liuliqiao police station an appeal for other Web users to stop forwarding information about her case, as she is worried it may affect the investigation.

A police officer with the Beijing public transportation law enforcement office, who declined to be named, said Tuesday they had received similar reports before, more in summer, however, it is always extremely hard to collect evidence to help the female victims.

An anonymous police officer from Liuliqiao police station refused to confirm they had the woman's father in custody at the station.

Wang Xingjuan, founder of the Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center, said she was not surprised to hear that a woman was sexually harassed in public, but found she had no support from society or the legal system.

"Our 'Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women' doesn't elaborate on guidelines for judges to handle such cases, they're just words on paper. This doesn't help negate the difficulties for victims asking for justice," said Wang.

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