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a man was detained for 5 days for sneaking into his female neighbor's house. is the punishment too light? the woman "did not dare to appeal for fear of retaliation", the lawyer explained

2024-09-17

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xiaoxiang morning news previously reported that on september 15, a female netizen from tianhe district, guangzhou, guangdong, posted a message saying that her home was broken into twice by a male neighbor who had just moved in a month ago. she only discovered it after checking the surveillance. the male neighbor has been detained for 5 days.

△photo of the suspect being taken away. photo provided by the interviewee

on september 16, the netizen who posted the message told the reporter of xiaoxiang morning news that he had been living alone and had lived in his current home for more than a year. he usually kept a spare key outside the door. on the 14th, he went out at around 8:50 in the morning. when he came back from get off work, he found many footprints on the ground and realized that someone had sneaked in. after checking the surveillance, he found that it was a male neighbor who had just moved in a month ago. "the floor of my house is usually very clean... later i checked the surveillance and found that the reason for the footprints was that i wet the floor when i washed my face and brushed my teeth in the morning. he went in a short while after i went to work. if there were no footprints on the ground due to the water, i would not have noticed that someone had gone in."

the netizen who posted the post said that the things in the house were not moved much, but from the footprints, it can be seen that the man went to the bathroom, the balcony, and sat on the bed. "after collecting evidence, i threw away everything on the bed and daily necessities."

△ checking footprints. photo provided by the interviewee

according to the police receipt provided by the poster, he called the police at 11:18 pm on september 14, and the chebei police station was responsible for this police case. the poster said that the man admitted at the police station that he had been there once before. this reminded the poster that he once saw two or three very short hairs on the bed, but he took a courier home at the time and thought it was stuck on the bed by the courier.

△interview receipt. photo provided by the interviewee

the netizen who posted the message said that the police station later informed her that the man had been detained for five days and asked to move out. she has not received a written penalty notice yet. she said that she would not appeal in the future, "i am afraid that they will come out to retaliate against me, but they did not cause me much harm. but i was really scared when i saw the surveillance video. i knew someone came in, but i didn't think it was the people next door."

on the morning of the 16th, a reporter from xiaoxiang morning news called the chepi police station in tianhe district about the matter. the staff inquired about the police incident and then said that it was being handled according to normal procedures. the details of the handling were inconvenient to disclose. if the parties involved have any questions about the punishment results, they can reflect them through the corresponding channels.

if it is true that the man was detained for 5 days, how should it be understood from a legal perspective?

liu kai, a lawyer at beijing zhongwen (changsha) law firm, analyzed that in this case, the neighbor sneaked into the woman's home without permission many times. although it did not directly cause property damage or personal injury, his behavior constituted illegal intrusion into another person's home. this behavior clearly infringed on the right to residential peace and privacy of others. therefore, the police should impose an administrative penalty of 5 days' detention on the man in accordance with the provisions of article 40, paragraph 3 of the "public security administration punishment law".

the focus of public security management punishment is to deal with lighter violations of the law to ensure social order and public safety, while particularly serious acts will be subject to more severe accountability in accordance with the criminal law.

if the man breaks into someone else's home by malicious means such as forced entry, destruction of property or personal injury, or causes serious consequences, it may escalate into a criminal case, thus constituting the crime of illegal entry into a residence as stipulated in article 245 of the criminal law.

in addition, according to article 1032 of the civil code, citizens enjoy the right to privacy and may not enter other people's homes without permission. in this case, the victim can claim tort liability based on this provision and require the other party to bear civil compensation liability, such as compensation for mental damages.