A nanny was executed in China today for deliberately setting her employer's flat on fire, which killed the family of four.
Mo Huanjing (莫焕晶), 35, was sentenced to death in February this year after being convicted of arson and theft by a court in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The court said gambling-obsessed Mo had intended to set the fire then put it out, hoping her 'brave act' could win her middle-class employer's gratitude and financial reward, but the blaze went out of control.
Her female employer and all of her three children - aged between six and 11 - were killed during the fire in June, 2017, at their four-bedroom home on the 17th floor.
The children's father, Lin Shengbin, was reportedly on a business trip, hence survived the tragedy. The nanny managed to escape the fire.
Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court said the Supreme People's Court of China had reviewed and approved the death sentence.
The intermediate court said it received the order of the execution from the Supreme People's Court today and carried out the execution subsequently.
Mo's family members had been given an opportunity to meet Mo before the execution, but they refused to see her, according to a statement issued by Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
Lin, who lost his wife and all of his children, said he couldn't stop crying upon hearing about Mo's execution. He said he immediately called his late wife's parents, who also cried over the phone.
Her female employer and all of her three children - aged between six and 11 - were killed during the fire in June, 2017, at their four-bedroom home on the 17th floor.
The children's father, Lin Shengbin, was reportedly on a business trip, hence survived the tragedy. The nanny managed to escape the fire.
Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court said the Supreme People's Court of China had reviewed and approved the death sentence.
The intermediate court said it received the order of the execution from the Supreme People's Court on Sunday and carried out the execution subsequently.
Mo's family members had been given an opportunity to meet Mo before the execution, but they refused to see her, according to a statement issued by Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court.
Lin, who lost his wife and all of his children, said he couldn't stop crying upon hearing about Mo's execution. He said he immediately called his late wife's parents, who also cried over the phone.
In a post to his nearly three million followers on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter, Lin said: 'The evil person has finally been punished by law.'
He added that the execution 'will bring a sense of comfort to Xiao Zhen (his wife) and the children in heaven'.
He concluded his post by writing: 'The road ahead will be harder. I will carry on trying.'
Mo's arson case has been one of the most high-profile criminal cases in China in the recent years.
According to the court, Mo was addicted to online gambling games and had been buried under debts. It is said that she had lost £6,800 the night before she decided to set the flat on fire.
Mo was originally from Dongguan, southern China. She left her hometown in 2015 to dodge gambling debts, according to a previous report from Xinhua News Agency.
The Supreme People's Court found Mo guilty of arson. It said her motives were 'despicable' and the social impact of the case was 'extremely serious'.
Mo was also convict of theft. The court said before she set the family's home on fire, she had stolen luxury watches and jewellery from the family on several occasions before pawning them off for 180,000 yuan (£20,000), said the court.
During her previous employment working as a nanny in Shanghai and Shaoxing during 2015 and 2016, Mo had repeatedly stolen from her former employers, the court said.
The Supreme Court said considering Mo's both crimes, it decided keep the death sentence given to her by the intermediate court.
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