Eight workers at Ctrip daycare center sentenced to prison

SHANGHAI - A court in Shanghai on Tuesday handed down sentences to eight defendants from a daycare center in the city after finding them guilty of child abuse.

The announcement of the verdict was read out at the Changning District People's Court in Shanghai.

In August 2017, seven of the defendants, who were workers at the center, rubbed wasabi and sprayed liquids on toddlers in addition to pushing, dragging and spanking them,

They were told by Zheng Yan, the other defendant who was in charge of the center, to avoid surveillance cameras.

Zheng was sentenced to one year and six months in prison. Both Liang Shuo and Tang Ying, who bought the wasabi to abuse the children, were sentenced to one year and two months in prison.

They will be banned from daycare work for five years from the day they serve out their terms or they are released on parole.

The other five were given imprisonment ranging from one year to one year and two months with probation and are prohibited from daycare work during probation.

Video footage of the defendants appearing to abuse children in a Ctrip daycare center went viral in November last year, leading to an intense public outcry.

China's leading travel agency Ctrip established the center, run by a third-party organization, in 2016, to help employees solve babysitting problems for children under three years old, the minimum age for public kindergartens.

Eight people stand trial for Shanghai daycare center child abuse scandal

Shanghai procuratorate begins legal proceedings against child abuse suspects