Chennai, Feb 3 (IANS): A special court here on Monday sentenced five persons to life imprisonment, nine others to five years and one person to seven years in jail for sexually assaulting a minor disabled girl at an apartment complex here.

On Saturday, the special court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenders (POCSO) Act had convicted 15 accused, acquitted one while one person died as the trial was on.

The 12-year-old hearing impaired girl was sexually assaulted by the convicts working in the apartment complex as lift operators, plumbers, housekeepers, and security guards for about seven months.

Some of accused were above 50 years of age.

The sexual assault came to light last year when the girl told her ordeal to her elder sister who had come here on holiday from Delhi.

The parents then lodged a police complaint and 17 persons were arrested.

According to the police, the girl was first sexually assaulted by the lift operator in the apartment complex and later the others assaulted her.