BEIJING: In a bizarre case, a 13-year old boy has been arrested for killing a three-year old infant girl and then having sex with the corpse. The postmortem has confirmed that the girl was first killed and then sexually assaulted, the police said.

"We have arrested the boy and are interrogating him to determine the motive of the murder,��� the police in Haizhu district of South China���s Guangzhou province said about the May 19 incident in the district. The arrest took place two days after the incident but the police are holding back the name of the accused because he is a minor.

Under Chinese law, a person below the age of 14 cannot be charged with criminal offense. This is what has made this case of necrophilia a challenge one for the local legal authorities.

The accused has confessed to have committed the crime, the police said. He also told police that he acted alone without any accomplice.

The boy noticed the little girl, who was playing near her apartment building, on his way home from school. He grabbed and took her to his house. There was no one else in his house at that time. The boy is believed to have bound the infant���s hands and feet before drowning her in a basin full of water, local reports say.

"My daughter had gone out to play at about 5 pm on May 19, but when she didn't return till dark, we got worried.��� We went out to search for her, and at about 8 pm we noticed police barricades near an apartment building nearby,��� the girl���s father was quoted by the Guangzhou-based South China Metropolis Daily as saying.

The local media quoted psychologists as saying that the incident may have been motivated by pornography available on the Internet. It also quoted local lawyers as saying that the victim���s family could be compensated but the accused would not be subject to criminal charges because he is below the age of 14.

The father of the accused is a chef, who lives in another city. His mother is a waitress in the same city and lives with the boy.