A serial killer dubbed China's "Jack the Ripper" was sentenced to death on Friday for murdering 10 women and an 8-year-old girl over a period of 14 years in northern China.

Gao Chengyong, 53, was given the penalty at the Baiyin Intermediate People's Court in Gansu province on Friday morning－about 30 years after he committed the first killing－for multiple charges of homicide, rape, robbery and mutilation of corpses.

The verdict said Gao killed 11 female victims in Baiyin and Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region between May 1988 and February 2002, with the youngest victim being just 8 years old.

Gao followed the victims and broke into their homes before the rapes and killings, and he committed the offenses with the aim of getting money and to satisfy his distorted mind, the verdict said.

"Gao disregarded laws, hated society and treated lives with indifference," it said. "His motives are extremely despicable, his behavior extremely cruel and the nature of the crimes extremely serious. What he did has caused huge social harm and must receive severe punishment."

Before the verdict was given, it was revealed that during questioning by prosecutors, Gao said he committed the offenses to steal money in the beginning but then could not control himself and even "enjoyed" the killings.

Gao followed the victims and broke into their homes before the rapes and killings, and he committed the offenses with the aim of getting money and to satisfy his distorted mind, the verdict said.

"Gao disregarded laws, hated society and treated lives with indifference," it said. "His motives are extremely despicable, his behavior extremely cruel and the nature of the crimes extremely serious. What he did has caused huge social harm and must receive severe punishment."

Before the verdict was given, it was revealed that during questioning by prosecutors, Gao said he committed the offenses to steal money in the beginning but then could not control himself and even "enjoyed" the killings.

"He's very cold-blooded and shows an antisocial personality," he was quoted as saying by the Beijing Times.

The serial killings aroused huge public outrage when the murders occurred, but Gao was not a suspect in the crimes until 2016, after police collected a blood sample from a relative of Gao in another criminal investigation in 2015. Thanks to the development of DNA technology, police were led to Gao by a DNA comparison, and he was arrested in a grocery store in a school in Baiyin on Aug 26, 2016.

Ruan Chuansheng, a law professor with the Shanghai Administration Institute, said the cracking of the case was due to the unrelenting efforts of the police and the development of investigative methods.

"The developments of criminal investigative techniques, such as the biological evidence and DNA, were the key to finding the culprit," he said, adding that such a verdict can also improve the public's sense of security.

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