A part-time private tutor who molested a 7-year-old girl has been prohibited from working in education for five years in addition to an 18-month jail term, according to Changning District People’s Procuratorate.

The man, Cheng, is the first in the city to receive a five-year employment ban for a workplace offense.

Restrictions on employment were introduced in 2005, allowing courts to impose three to five-year bans to prevent criminals taking advantage of their positions.

Cheng, who was not a licensed teacher, registered as a part-time tutor with an online education platform.

He helped a 7-year-old girl with her homework at her family home from November 2017 to February 25, 2018, prosecutors said.

Over the period, he sexually assaulted the girl several times.

The girl’s parents noticed she was behaving oddly and finally she told them the truth.

Cheng was apprehended on February 26 when the concerned parents called the police.

Cheng has admitted his guilt and will not appeal. After one and half years behind bars, he will be banned from working in education or with children for five years.

Prosecutor Huang Dongsheng said Cheng’s crimes were hard to detect, but extremely harmful and dangerous so he had received the longest possible ban.

In January 2017, a teacher became the first person in Shanghai to receive a court-imposed restriction on employment for sex offenses.

He was sentenced to two and half years in prison and banned from the classroom for three years after being found to have hugged and kissed a junior middle school student he was preparing for an exam.