News

Online game addict says 'sorry' for violent attack

By Zhao Yanrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-20 09:39

A computer game addict told a court Tuesday he regretted attacking a woman in a desperate bid to cure his online addiction.

Zhang Zhaoyu, a 19-year-old migrant worker, attacked a female farmer in a village in Huairou district last July. He told a judge in Huairou district court that he had become addicted to computer games to the degree that he had lost hope in life.

The young farmer from Yixian county in Hebei province admitted he had attacked Feng Baohuan on July 14 last year as she collected peppers from a field. He claimed he had done so after failing to commit suicide by striking his head with a brick.

He stopped his attack only after he saw blood on Feng's head. Police later said Zhang did not try to escape when they detained him.

During the hearing, Zhang was quiet as the judge stated the case. Zhang did not hire a counsel to defend himself and waited only to give an explanation.

"I wanted to break my addiction. I thought it would help if I spent four or five moths in jail, so I attacked her," Zhang said.

"I saw her as an eyesore, even though I had never met her before. At that time, everything irritated me. Life was hopeless but I felt alive when I was attacking her," he added.

Zhang said he started playing online games when he was 12 years old. Just before he attacked Feng, he had spent two months in an Internet bar.

"I slept two hours a day and played games for the rest of the time," he said. He quickly spent all the 3,600 yuan he had earned as an interior decorator over the preceding three months.

"There are so many ways to kill someone in the game. It was such a cool game," Zhang told the court.

Unfortunately for Zhang, his cold-turkey plan didn't pay off.

"Life in the detention house is terrible because I cannot play computer games anymore. It almost drives me crazy," he said.

The court did not give a verdict on Zhang's case Tuesday.