The woman at the center of a notorious child rape scandal involving officials in southwest China was sentenced life in jail on Friday.

Yuan Ronghui, a 37-year-old unemployed woman who forced 10 schoolgirls - some as young as 13 - into prostitution, was found guilty of forced prostitution, the Intermediate People's Court of Zunyi, Guizhou province announced in the first trial.

Under the Criminal Law, the maximum penalty for the offences is death.