Chinese who kept sex slaves in dungeon gets death

A 35-year-old Chinese man who kept six women as sex slaves in a dungeon was Friday sentenced to death.

Li Hao was also charged with causing the death of two of the women, Xinhua reported.

He was convicted by a court in Henan provinceof murder, rape, organised prostitution, illegal detention and spreading pornography for profit.

Li dug the dungeon himself in the basement he bought in Luoyang in August 2009 just to lock up women he tricked into coming to his place.

The women had been held there for two to 21 months, police said.

The court said Li repeatedly raped the women, forced them to appear in obscene online shows in 2011 and forced them to have sex with customers in August-September last year.

The secret dungeon was discovered after one woman fled and reported the situation to police.

In a twist in the case, three of the women locked up by Li, were also found guilty of murder. They killed two women in the dungeon under Li's instruction.

However, they were shown leniency for committing crimes under such circumstances. One woman was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other two were put on probation.

The man worked as a clerk for Luoyang's technological supervision bureau, was married and had an eight-month-old son at the time of his arrest.

The women had worked at karaoke bars, hair salons and a massage shop prior to being kidnapped.