Chinese woman avoids jail for 10 years after becoming pregnant 13 times

Under local laws, the woman was not allowed to be committed to prison whilst pregnant

Pregnant belly in a mirror (WestEnd61/REX)

A Chinese woman has avoided jail for ten years through 13 pregnancies, it has been reported.

Chinese media reports that the woman, then 29, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2005.

However, due to her being pregnant at the time, the court decided to grant her probation for the duration of her pregnancy. When the probation period ended, she reportedly told officials that she was pregnant again.

In total, according to the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily Online, she claimed that she became pregnant fourteen times, although she has since admitted that one of the pregnancies was fictitious. She maintains that the other thirteen pregnancies were authentic.

It is reported that she has now been imprisoned, aged 39, almost a decade after first being sentenced.

In the UK, women who are pregnant can be imprisoned. Whilst they are transferred to hospital for the birthing process, the women can then be returned to special mother and baby prison units to bring up the baby in jail until it reaches the age of 18 months. There are seven specially adapted mother and baby units at prisons around the UK.