Suspecting wife having affairs, husband tattoos the word “degrading” on her face

From Netease:

In Dahua Ethnic Yao Autonomous County, due to suspicion of his wife having an affair, a man cruelly tattooed the word “degrading” (下贱: xiajian: degrading, cheap, lowly…) on her face. On April 3, Zhennan local police station cracked this disfigurement case, arrested the suspect and seized piercer, bandage, towel and other tools used in the crime.

1. Basic details of the case

Disfiguring his wife just for preventing her from having extramarital affairs

36-year-old Wei Shengxiong married the victim Xiaowei in 2006 and had they two sons together. Since 2008, Wei Shengxiong has always been suspicious of his wife having affairs, two of them often fought because of it, but the problem remained unsolved. In the morning of March 30, Wei Shengxiong again argued with Wei at home. However this fight caused Wei’s great resentment towards his wife, he decided to disfigure Xiaowei. One, is to release his anger, second to make her ugly so she will no longer be loved by other men, as to prevent her from having affairs.

At about 11 am that day, Wei Shengxiong grabbed Xiaowei by her head and threw her head against the wall in their living room. After hitting her head, Xiaowei fell down on the floor. Then Wei Shengxiong tied her hands with plastic bandage and plugged her mouth with a towel to prevent her from screaming. Then he pulled her into the kitchen and cruelly cut the word “degrading” on her right and left cheeks. After that, in order to make the characters more visible, he even smeared some black ash from bottom of the pot into the wounds.

After the disfigurement, in order to prevent his wife from calling the police, he locked her at home and not even taking her for medical treatment. On March 31, Wei Shengxiong’s uncle found out about the whole thing, and out of sympathy, he brought Xiaowei to the local hospital for treatment. Then the case was exposed. April 3, after some inner mental struggle, Xiaowei, reported the case to the security authorities accompanied by her families.

Now suspect Wei Shengxiong is under criminal detention.

2. Analysis on the criminal suspect

Most frequent remarks about him is “he is too suspicious.”

April 6, during interviews, reporter found that the most frequent remarks about him was “Wei Shengxiong is too suspicious”. What exactly is 36 year old Wei Shengxiong like? What made him to act violently on his wife who had been living with him for 9 years and had two sons?

Xiaowei was with Wei Shengxiong when she was only 17 years old, and then she gave birth to two children. Faced with a younger, beautiful and educated wife, Wei Shengxiong felt insecure. After marriage, they both worked in Guangdong Province. In 2001, Xiaowei was pregnant. However, Wei Shengxiong didn’t feel excited to become a father. Instead, he felt uncomfortable about this and always thought that the child did not look like him.

“Why did he suspect that the child was not his son? Because I didn’t go home one night in order to finish my work. A month later, I was pregnant. He suspected that I slept with someone else.” Xiaowei felt angry towards his husband’s suspicion but didn’t know what to do with him.

Wei Shengxiong became more and more suspicious, finally he came up with an idea, to take his son for DNA testing. The test result proved that he was the father. This dispute has ended.

“The second son resembled him a lot. So he didn’t question. Otherwise, I don’t know what he would do.” Xiaowei felt helpless for his husband’s suspicion.

“Is this the first time he abused you?” the reporter asked Xiaowei.

“No. He has a bad temper” Said Xiaowei. In 2007, her ex-love came back from the army and they came across each other. After knowing this, Wei Shengxiong lost his temper. He began to suspect his wife of having an affair the the ex-lover. In 2008, he once held a fruit knife , threatened the wife’s mother and accused her of failing to educate her daughter and making her not abiding by Female Virtues.

On March 27, Wei Shengxiong had an argument with Xiaowei on whom should be getting a vasectomy. Xiaowei thought that the responsibility of birth control is shared between both of them so the healthier one should. However, Wei Shengxiong thought Xiaowei should be vasectomized so that she would no longer be able to have baby for other men. During this fight, Xiaowei was thrown to the concrete pillar and injured her arms.

During the investigation , Wei Shengxiong emphasized “This is the result of her choice”. What was the “choice” he referred to?

“On March 30, at noon, during the argument, Wei Shengxiong gave Xiaowei four choices.” The police in charge of this case told the reporter, those so-called “choices” were: 1. Xiaowei gets a vasectomy and stays home to take care of the children instead of going out for work; 2. Xiaowei’s lover gives 1 million RMB to Wei Shengxiong; 3. Xiaowei, her lover and Wei Shengxiong goes to court to solve this problem; 4. Wei Shengxiong is to disfigure Xiaowei and break her leg. Wei Shengxiong kept emphasizing to the police that Xiaowei chose to be disfigured.

3. Talk with the victim

“I want a divorce and I am asking to severely punish Wei Shengxiong”

“With the disfigurement, no men would love you any more. See how you still can have affair! ” On April 6, looking back what her husband Wei Shengxiong once said, Xiaowei, still appeared to be fearful. Wei Shengxiong is now behind bars, but the word “degrading” on her face was like a heavy burden, pressing her heart.

Reporter: In the beginning, you had already known Wei Shengxiong had a bad temper. Why did you still marry him?

Xiaowei: I was with him since 17 years old. In 2006, I was legally married to him. Though we had been together for nine years, he was in Guangzhou and I was in Shenzhen. In fact the time when we were together was less than three months. In 2007, I was thinking of getting a divorce, but my mom didn’t allow this because of my two sons. So it was done then.

Reporter: he always had a bad temper. But did you ever think that he would disfigure you?

Xiaowei: When we fought, he tied me up. I thought he just tied me up for the vasectomy but I had never thought that he would tattoo words on my face.

Reporter: After he tattooed words on your face, why didn’t you report this to the police immediately?

Xiaowei: I was numb, with blood everywhere on my face and hair. I asked him: “Can I go now?” and he said “you can go to the living room but if you go out of the house, I will break your arms and legs.” So I didn’t dare to go out that day.

Reporter: what do you want to do the most now? What do you think?

Xiaowei: all I want to do is to get a divorce and get plastic surgery. My figure has already been destroyed. I have to wear a mask when I go out. I think my life becomes grey. I ask the public security departments to severely punish Wei Shengxiong.

4. Talk with the suspect

On the form of residence registration, reporter saw the one-inch photo of Wei Shengxiong. He was bright-eyed. You would never relate him to the one who cruelly tattoo words on wife’s face. In the Dahua detention center, reporter saw Wei Shengxiong in person. This time, he looked pallid and contempt.

The prison guard brought Wei Shengxiong to the room.

Prison guard: why were you kept here?

Wei Shengxiong: I had a fight with my wife.

Prison guard: Why did you fight? What could you not solve with peaceful negotiation or through the law?

Wei Shengxiong： I wanted to solve the problem in court, but she didn’t agree. She chose to let me tattoo words on her face. But it turned out that she wanted to accuse me. I need to find a lawyer. （during the talk with the prison guard, Wei Shengxiong talked in a loud voice.）

After the reporter and the three policemen in charge of the case went into the inquiry room, Wei Shengxiong suddenly became silent and his expression turned stiff.

No matter what the police asked him, Wei Shengxiong said nothing. So the police asked for his confirmation according to the previous questioning records. A few minutes later, Wei Shengxiong finally said, “I suspect that you are a relative of of Wei. I refuse to answer any of your questions.” During the questioning, Wei Shengxiong repeated these words four or five times.

Suspect Wei Shengxiong behind bars

5. Various voices

In the afternoon of April 6, Xiaowei came to Woman’s Federation of Dahua Yao Autonomous County accompanied by Wei Pingping, the police in charge of the case. After hearing the case description presented by Wei Pingping and seeing the characters on Xiaowei’s face, the staffs of Woman’s Federation were all extremely angry, they shouted,  “in our work at Woman’s Federation so many years, we have never heard of such things. It’s too cruel.”

After getting to know the details, the staffs hoped that the public security departments could protect the legitimate rights and interests of women and severely punish the criminal.

According to the doctor in charge of Xiaowie’s case, the cuts should be treated within six hours when the injury took place, or they would easily get infected and leave scars. The cuts on Xiaowei’s face were tattooed with foreign object. From the injury to treatment, more than 24 hours have passed. The best time for treatment has passed. Moreover, characters on her face were once inked with black ash. So to remove them is quite difficult. The lighter ones can be removed by applying laser or physical polishing, while the deeper one needs surgical operation for removal or skin grafting. But some scars may be left with the skills and equipment in the county.

According to the Dahua Police, although there are many injury cases related to cutting character on face or body on the Internet, but in Dahua, or in Hechi City, or even in Guangxi Province, this kind of case is quite rare. Such cruel behavior is really astonishing.