Life term for luring teens into sex trade HANOI - A court has sentenced a 70-year-old man to life imprisonment for multiple rape, possession of pornography and coercing more than 40 teenage girls into prostitution. The court also ordered that Ly Son - who had previously served three years in prison following a 1986 conviction for selling pornography - surrender his Hanoi home and pay 7.5 million dong (HK$4,150) in compensation to one of his victims. The two-day trial was widely reported and drew crowds of onlookers, who gathered outside Hanoi's People's Court to catch a glimpse of Son, dubbed "the lustful grandfather" by newspapers. Two others - Nguyen Mai Phuong, 18, and Nguyen Bach Tung, 34 - were sentenced to six years and 10 years respectively for their association with Son's prostitution racket. Court chairman Nguyen Dinh Phuc described the trial as the most difficult in his career and chided Son for his courtroom behaviour and histrionics, which at one stage saw him fake a physical collapse. Son represented himself in court. The trial was thrown into uproar when it heard the names and addresses of 20 high-ranking government officials, prominent businessmen and foreigners he claimed had asked him to procure teenage girls and virgins. The activities of Son - an accomplished artist and graduate of Hanoi's Foreign Language and National Music universities - were brought to the attention of authorities by the outraged father of a young girl who had been threatened with the sack if she did not have sex with Son. The girl was one of more than 40 - either language or music students he was tutoring or employed by Son as housekeepers and artist's models - who were coerced into prostitution by unspecified "tricks", the court heard. By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - March 18, 2000.