China to execute man who killed girl in parking space row

A Chinese court has ordered the execution of a former convict for the death of a two-year-old girl he threw to the ground after a row over a parking space, state media said Wednesday.

Han Lei, 39, was sentenced to die by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Han had reportedly told prosecutors in August that he felt so guilty and distressed that he wanted to die, the Beijing News reported at the time.

"I caused such a calamity for the child... please make sure that I am sentenced to death," the paper quoted him as saying. "I don't want to live any more."

Han took the nearly three-year-old child from her pram and threw her to the ground near a bus stop in Beijing in July after her mother refused to make way for him to park his car, Chinese media have reported.

He and a friend in the car drove away and the toddler died two days later of her injuries, the reports said.

Han fled but was apprehended the next day, Xinhua said. He was charged with murder.

Xinhua said that Han committed the crime less than a year after being released from prison.

Han was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for stealing a car but was released last year after the sentence was commuted, according to other media reports.

In a similar case, a policeman has been detained accused of grabbing a seven-month-old baby girl from her parents in July after drinking with friends in Linzhou in Henan province and throwing her to the ground, fracturing her skull.