VIETNAM: MAN GETS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RAPE, MURDER OF 16-YR-OLD GIRL

A court in central Vietnam sentenced a man to death for raping and murdering a 16-year old girl two years ago.
Truong Que Lam, 35, also had to pay VND123.6 million (US$5,800) in compensation for the victim's family, the People's Court of Khanh Hoa Province said.
According to an indictment read at the court, Lam saw the victim, Le Thi Thanh Nga, catching snails in a small pond near a shrimp farm where he worked in Cam Ranh town one night in April of 2012.
Lam covered her mouth with his t-shirt and forced her to walk to his shrimp farm where he raped her.
The victim then begged him to let her go home, promising that she would not report the case to the police.
Frightened by the word “police”, Lam strangled her and later smashed her head with a rock until she died.
He hid her body in a drain and went to sleep.
A month later, Tran Thanh Tung, another farm worker, accidentally found a headless corpse which had apparently been carried by high tide out of the drain and into the shrimp pond.
The farm owner’s son found the skull the day after while searching in the pond.
The following police investigation prompted Lam to attempt to commit suicide by hanging. However, he was rescued by neighbors.
Police arrested him one week after his victim’s body was found.