Parent of child sold online to buy iPhone ‘didn’t know that it was illegal’

A Chinese man who was accused of selling his 18-day-old child online has been handed a jail sentence, the Epoch Times reported.

The man, 19-year-old A Duan reportedly sold his infant daughter to a stranger online via Chinese social media network QQ for what is the equivalent of $3,520 USD.

Multiple outlets, including the Daily Mail, reported that the money was used to buy an iPhone and motorbike.

“The biological mother, Xiao Mei (a pseudonym), worked temporary jobs and was below the age of consent when they conceived the child,” the Epoch Times reported. ”Once A Duan discovered he could sell the baby, he elected to do so — without the mother’s consent.”

After the infant was sold, Xiao Mei reportedly went on the run, when investigators found her she told them she didn’t know it was illegal to sell a child online.

“I myself was adopted, and many people in my hometown send their kids to other people to raise them,” Xiao Mei confessed, according to multiple reports. “I really didn’t know that it was illegal.”

Xiao Mei was reportedly given a suspended sentence of two and a half years and A Duan was sentenced to three years in prison.

The buyer of the baby came forward to investigators. Oddly enough the baby reportedly remains in his sister’s custody because, as the Epoch Times explained “the parents are in no position to raise a child.”

Matt Lee is a web producer for Metro New York. He writes about almost everything and anything. Talk to him (or yell at him) on Twitter so he doesn’t feel lonely:@off_Yellow.