Gao Chengyong, dubbed the Chinese “Jack the Ripper,” was tried in the Baiyin Intermediate People's Court on multiple counts of homicide, rape, robbery and mutilation of corpses.

He was detained in August 2016 at a grocery store he ran as a consequence of a DNA test carried out on one of his relatives who had committed a crime the year before. When the result turned out to be similar to the DNA of the murder suspect, Gao was also tested and a match was confirmed.

Gao admitted killing the 11 people, the youngest of whom was just eight years old, between 1988 and 2002.

His arrest ended a 28-year hunt for the killer.

The murders took place in northwest China’s Baiyin city in Gansu Province and Baotou city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.