The southern Tien Giang Province People’s Court has given a life sentence to a local 54-year-old man who committed sexual assaults on two minors, one of whom the man violated more than 100 times during a year. The convicted is Ho Van Binh of Cai Be District’s Tan Hung Commune, who was arrested in November 2012 after being caught having sex with a 10-year-old girl, N.T.M.C.  After Binh’s arrest, he confessed he had also carried out four sexual assaults on another minor, N.N.T., who was born in 2003. The court ordered that Binh pay VND26.5 million (US$1,250) as mental health compensation to the two victims. According to the indictment, on November 7th, 2012, the girl’s uncle, Nguyen Minh Trung, went to look for his niece and caught Binh violating her. Binh admitted to the police that on February 15, 2011, while he was lying in a hammock at his home, C and some other teenagers came to visit him. C later shared the hammock with Binh. When the other teens left, Binh offered sexual stimulation to C and then had sexual intercourse with her after promising to give her some money. Binh told investigators that he gave the girl up to VND100,000 (US$4.8) after each sex session. From February 2011 to November 2012, the man violated the girl more than 100 times, he said. On March 8, 2013, the same court tried Binh and sentenced him to 20 years in jail, but the victim’s family appealed the verdict, demanding a heavier punishment for the violator. On August 21, the Supreme People’s Court opened an appeal hearing for the case and cancelled the verdict, requesting the provincial court to open a retrial for Binh. At yesterday’s hearing, the provincial court decided to increase the 20-year sentence to life imprisonment for the defendant.