A man from Cao Bang Province, northern Vietnam has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally beating his girlfriend’s son over the boy's use of marijuana in 2020.

The provincial People’s Court handed the lifetime imprisonment to Nong Xuan Luan, 33, for murder during a trial on Wednesday.

The indictment showed that Luan had a relationship with Trieu Thi Kiem, whose husband had passed away.

Luan lived with Kiem and her son – 14-year-old Hoang Tung D. – at a house in Cao Bang City, which is the capital of the namesake province.

As Luan and D. often had conflicts, Luan hit the teenage boy on multiple occasions.

On the afternoon of December 12, 2020, Luan noticed that D. was showing signs of using drugs and questioned the boy about this.

As D. admitted he had consumed marijuana, Luan began punching, kicking, and beating the boy with a plastic chair despite Kiem’s intervention.

The man then took the boy to the bathroom, poured cold water onto him, and continued hitting him.

Following the incident, D. changed his clothes and went to bed, but was found dead at around 8:30 pm the same day.

The Cao Bang People’s Procuracy originally proposed that Luan be sentenced to 20 years in jail.

However, the jury believed that a sterner punishment had to be imposed on Luan as his actions were brutal and the victim was under 16 years old.

Aside from the prison term, the man was required to pay the victim’s family VND182 million (US$8,000) as compensation.

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