Chinese sex tape official jailed for 13 years

A Chinese official who was brought down after a sex tape with his mistress was leaked onto the internet has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for corruption.

The bulging eyes and strained features of Lei Zhengfu, the former party chief of a district of Chongqing, became a sensation on the Chinese internet, putting an all-too human face on the corruption that has seeped through the Communist party.

In the tape, the 55-year-old Mr Lei was seen in the arms of 18-year-old Zhao Hongxia.

Unknown to Mr Lei at the time, Miss Zhao had been sent as a honey trap by a local property developer and instructed to film their encounter in order to blackmail him.

During his trial, Mr Lei insisted that he was in love with Miss Zhao and that the £320,000 of hush money he had paid to the property developer was not evidence of corruption but rather a loan.

The court had little sympathy for him, however. "The sums involved were massive, and the effects were malign," said the verdict, according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.

For her part, Miss Zhao was sentenced to two years in prison for helping to extort money from Mr Lei. The property developer who orchestrated the sting, Xiao Ye, was given ten years.

China's new president, Xi Jinping, has waged war on the corruption within the party, and Mr Lei is only one of a series of officials who have been toppled by lurid claims on the internet.
Mr Lei did not say at his trial whether he would appeal.