BEIJING (AFP) - A COURT in south-west China has sentenced eight people, including four officials, to between seven years and life for their roles in a child prostitution ring, state press reported on Saturday.

Ringleader Yuan Ronghui, 37, was sentenced to life for forcing 10 schoolgirls into prostitution, the China Daily newspaper said.

The court in Zunyi, Guizhou province, on Friday sentenced seven others to between seven and 14 years in prison.

They included four local officials and a teacher found guilty of child rape, the youngest of whom was 13 years old, the English-language paper said.

Yuan, who was unemployed, provided the young girls - and her apartment - to the men for 100 yuan (S$20).

She was helped by two teenage accomplices who waited for young girls at a school gate.

The teenage accomplices were sent to a detention centre for minors, according to earlier reports.

The sex ring operated from October 2007 to July 2008. In August parents of one of the girls raised the alarm after discovering that their daughter was pregnant.

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