Father Sells Toddler Son, Uses Money To Go On Tour With New Wife

A man from China’s Zhejiang sold his toddler son and then used the money to go on a tour around the country with his new wife.

According to Zhejiang Legal Daily, the man, identified as Xie, was given custody of the two-year-old boy after he divorced the child’s mother, who kept their daughter.

Xie then left the child in the care of his brother, identified as Lin, who lived with his family members in Huzhou city.

Xie reportedly visited the house last month and took away the toddler saying that his mother wanted to see him. However, the child did not reach his mother’s home. Lin then alerted the police about the missing child.

Police say that Xie and his second wife used to constantly engage in altercations with each other. The woman reportedly wanted the child out of the house.

To relieve himself from the burden, Xi sold his son, nicknamed Jiajia, to a childless couple in Changshu for 158,000 yuan.

He used the money to pamper his second wife and took her on a tour around the country.

Xi and his wife are now facing "criminal coercive measures", according to police. The child was safely returned to his uncle’s custody.

Multiple incidents where fathers sold their children for money have been reported from the country in the past.

Last year, a migrant worker allegedly sold his newborn son to a stranger he met on the internet. The man was arrested and charged.

During the interrogation, the father told the police that he did so to earn some money to support his family. The man had been unemployed since the time the pandemic hit the country.

In 2016, a teen father sold his newborn daughter to buy himself a new iPhone and a motorbike. The 19-year-old was arrested and charged.

In a similar incident, a teen girl who was "sold" by her uncle was allegedly gang-raped by her husband's family members.

The 17-year-old student in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, India, was forced by her uncle and parents to marry a man from a neighboring village. Following the wedding, the girl was gang-raped by her husband's brother and sister-in-law's husband. When she told her husband and father-in-law about the incident, they told her that they had "purchased" her from her uncle.

The girl managed to escape the house and was later rescued from a train after a ticket examiner alerted the police about the run-away teen.