— A Chinese farmer has appealed the death sentence he was given for raping 116 women, a state-run newspaper said Tuesday.
Dai Qingcheng, 46, was given the death penalty in December for raping the women between 1993 and 2009 in Anhui province in eastern China, the China Daily reported.
The paper said he appealed to the Higher People’s Court of Anhui, but did not say when the case would be heard.
Dai usually preyed on the wives of migrant workers who had gone to bigger cities for work, the report said. His victims ranged from young girls to women in their 50s and included a woman who was six months pregnant.
The China Daily quoted police as saying Dai evaded capture for so long because some of his victims were too ashamed to go to the police.
Dai’s lawyer at his trial, Ming Tian, told the newspaper that he did not expect the appeal to be successful because there was no new evidence. He did not say what Dai was basing his appeal on.
Calls to the court rang unanswered Tuesday.
See TIME’s Top 10 Everything of 2010.
See TIME’s most unforgettable images of 2010.
