A college graduate in Xi'an, Shaan province?was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, May 20, 2014 for repeatedly robbing money from pupils at a primary school for overall 171.5 yuan, and he also received a penalty of 10,000 yuan. The court held a public trial on the robbery case at the playground of a middle school in the city. [Photo/chinanews.com]

A college graduate in Xi'an, Northwest Shaan province, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for repeatedly robbing money from pupils at a primary school for overall 171.5 yuan, and he also received a penalty of 10,000 yuan, the Xi'an Evening News reports.

The defendant, named Li Nan, is a 26-year-old college graduate. He was accused of conducting 11 robberies against pupils outside of a primary school in Xincheng district of Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province by violent means last year.

The court held a public trial on the robbery case at the playground of a middle school in the district. At the trial, it was revealed that over 20 pupils had fallen victim to the robberies. According to the prosecutors, these pupils were slapped, kicked and beaten by Li Nan during the robberies. Li even did not let go of those pupils who only have one yuan in their pockets.

As to the 10-year-imprisonment and 10,000 yuan penalty imposed on the defendant, Sun Baoxia, the chief judge at the court pointed out that robbery is a serious criminal offence. According to the country's Criminal Law, defendant who conducts robbery for over three times will be sentenced to over ten years in prison. While, in practice, the amount of money grabbed through robbery is usually not taken into consideration.

Sun also said that even through the defendant has only robbed little amount of money, the violent behavior has exerted negative psychological impact on those affected pupils, which is also a factor for the heavy sentence imposed on the defendant.