China: Man sells 18-day-old daughter online for £2,500 to buy iPhone and motorbike

A Chinese man is facing a three-year jail term after trying to sell his daughter over social media in a bid to use the funds to buy an iPhone and a motorbike. The man, identified as A Duan, from Tong'an, a southeastern province in China, allegedly made a deal over the social media site QQ to sell his baby daughter for £2,500 (23,000 Yuan).

According to local reports, the child's mother, identified as Xiao Mei, worked several part-time jobs, however the father mostly spent his time at Internet cafes. He planned to use the funds to buy an iPhone, as well as a motorbike.

The parents, both believed to be 19-years-old, reportedly had an unplanned child and could not afford to raise their daughter. The child was bought for the buyer's sister and remains with her at present till police conclude the investigations. After police investigations began, Mei who had fled from Tong'an was discovered and questioned about the illegal sale. She was given a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence. The buyer also turned himself in to the police.

"I myself was adopted, and many people in my hometown send their kids to other people to raise them. I really didn't know that it was illegal," Mei told police officials, reported People's Daily Online. The judge reduced the mother's prison term due to her circumstances. Mei is raising her younger brother who is in middle school and taking care of her elderly parents who suffer from disabilities, reported Epoch Times.

Earlier in 2015, in a chilling discovery, Beijing police recovered a newborn baby girl from a lavatory pipe. Police were alerted after local residents heard the newborn's cries. "Her head was upside down and her body was falling into the drain. We could only barely see her feet from the side," said police officer Qian Feng. "She just kept crying. I looked again, and thought we should try to pull her out even if the possibility might be slim."

In 2014, a baby hatch was shut down in Guangzhou after a major rise in the number of abandoned babies. The baby hatch was set up in a bid to offer a safe place for abandoned babies. Since it opened on 28 January 2014, the baby hatch has taken in 262 abandoned babies.