China's serial killer 'Jack the Ripper' sentenced to death

A court in northwest China today gave the death penalty to a serial killer, dubbed "Jack the Ripper", for killing 11 female victims, including an eight-year-old girl, between May 1988 and February 2002.

Gao Chengyong, 53, was found to have robbed, raped and mutilitated his victims, according to a report in state-run Xinhua news agency.

The youngest of the victims was an eight-year-old girl.

The People's Intermediate Court of Baiyin City said in its verdict that the crimes happened in the northwest Gansu Province and neighbouring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The court found he killed his victims to cover up robbery or rape in Baiyin, Gansu and Baotou, Inner Mongolia.

Gao confessed his crimes in the court and said he would not file an appeal.

He was arrested in August 2016 after a DNA test of one of his relatives for an unrelated crime suggested he could be linked to the serial killings.

The "Ripper" was being hunted by the police for 28 years.

Before his arrest, Gao, who targeted his victims wearing red, had terrified young women, often following them to their home, state media reports have said.

The original Jack the Ripper was a serial killer active in east London in the late Victorian era. The cases he was believed to have been involved have not been solved yet.