GUANGZHOU - A former official in south China's Guangdong Province was sentenced to four years in jail on Friday for sexually abusing three boys.

The Liwan District People's Court in the provincial capital of Guangzhou convicted Li Jun, a former official of the Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau, of molesting three minors under 14 on multiple occasions between September 2011 and June 2012.

Li, 44, got to know the boys by chatting with them online. He subsequently invited them to his home by promising them money or other rewards, the court said.

Li was in charge of the bureau's civil organization administration department before he was detained on July 4 last year.

The case is the latest in a string of child molestation cases that have popped up across the country in recent weeks.

David McMahon, a U.S. teacher who worked in Shanghai, was arrested on Thursday over allegations that he molested six children aged six to ten.