A shopkeeper dubbed 'China's Jack the Ripper' has been sentenced to death for the rapes and murders of 10 women and one girl.
Fifty-four-year-old Gao Chengyong carried out the gruesome murders over a 14-year period, beginning in 1988 and ending in 2002.
His youngest victim was just eight; he is reported to have followed her home, raped her, strangled her to death, left her in her bedroom closet, where she was found by her mum.
Advert
Chengyong, who has two children and ran a grocery store with his wife in Baiyin, was eventually caught in 2016. He was identified when his uncle was arrested for a minor offence and it was discovered he had a DNA link to the suspect.
The police had initially linked the brutal murders back in 2004 saying that whoever the suspect was had a 'sexual perversion and hates women'. Adding that 'he's reclusive and unsociable, but patient'.
A reward of 200,000 yuan (£22,900) was put up for anyone able to offer information that lead to an arrest.
Gao is believed to have chosen some of his victims because they were wearing red and had long hair, it's been reported.
Officials said the killer had cut the women's throats and in some cases cut out their reproductive organs - causing media to make links to the chilling murders carried out by Jack the Ripper, who was never caught and is thought to have mutilated and killed at least five women back in 1888 in the Whitechapel area of London.
Advert
Gao was arrested and charged in August 2016 and confessed to the 11 murders and multiple rape charges, as well as robbery and the mutilation of corpses last July.
At his two-day trial last year, his lawyer Zhu Aijun told Beijing News his client had 'bowed towards the victims' families three times' while he was confessing.
The Bejing News reported that Gao said he could not afford to compensate the families, but that he was willing to donate his organs.
The New York Times reported Gao's son as saying: "I didn't know what to say, or how to deal with it."
Advert
Source: The Independent; The New York Times
Featured Image Credit: Asia WireTopics: World News, News, China