The People’s Court in the north-central province of Nghe An on Thursday handed a 15-year jail term to a local high school student for his role in death of a five-year-old neighbor.

The case shook Nghe An when the story broke in June.

Dao Ngoc Hoang, an 11th grader in Nghe An’s Quynh Luu District, took H.T.V.D., a five-year-old neighbor, to an abandoned house in a forest in Yen Thanh District, about ten kilometers away from Hoang’s home on a motorbike at around 3:00 pm on June 7.

While at the abandoned house, Hoang asked D. to play a game, in which Hoang covered D.’s face with tape, gloves, and a sun jacket before binding up his arms and legs.

Hoang then took D. further into the forest and tied D. to a tree next to a stream. He left the boy there and returned home.

When Hoang came back to the place at around 2:00 pm on June 8, D. had died.

While D.’s family and authorities were searching for the boy, they found out through extracted CCTV footage that Hoang had been the last person to interact with D. before his disappearance.

Hoang then led the authorities to the area where the boy had been left.

At Thursday’s trial, Hoang admitted that after arriving at the forest, he started having an intention to extort VND12-20 million (US$515-858) from D.’s family, adding that he came up with the idea of hiding the boy from watching videos on the Internet.

According to the jury’s conclusion, Hoang committed murder.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and will be forced to pay the victim’s family VND169 million ($7,269) in compensation.

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