British child rape suspect detained in Beijing
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Neil Robinson who is wanted for allegedly raping a child in the United Kingdom. |
A British man who is wanted for allegedly raping a child in the United Kingdom was detained in Beijing on Friday.
Neil Robinson, 46, is in police custody and is being investigated for illegally staying in China, according to a brief statement issued by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.
The statement did not disclose further details.
A report on the BBC's website said Robinson is wanted in connection with the distribution of indecent images of children and the rape of a child.
Earlier, China's online community had been urging stricter checks on expats' backgrounds following the revelation that the suspect had been working in Chinese schools for the past eight years.
The Beijing News reported on its Weibo account that Neil Robinson was said to have been apprehended for "overstaying."
The suspect was featured in the BBC's Crimewatch program last September.
Several students at the Beijing World Youth Academy told a Beijing website that they recognized Robinson as one of their former teachers.
A school spokesman said "there were no formal or informal complaints made against him" in his three years at the school before he left last May for "personal reasons."
The story shocked many of his former students who described Robinson as a jovial person who was generally well-liked. They told the Beijing Kids website that he was apparently married to a Chinese woman.
Robinson has a profile on the job hunting site NetworkESL.com, last updated in 2010, showing he majored in computer studies in the UK and had eight years of experience in China, the website said.
In online comments, many people urged parents to be more careful when choosing teachers for their children and urged authorities and educational institutes to take responsibility for checking teachers' backgrounds.
One online comment read: "He might have found it hard to live in Britain any longer and so he flew to China. It's so ridiculous that we took him as a foreign expert."
The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs has ruled that expats working in China should have no criminal history, but doesn't specify who is responsible for checking.
Disney English, an English-learning center for children, said its teachers were asked for a police document to prove they had no criminal record.
(Shanghai Daily contributed to this story)
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