A former firefighter who imprisoned six women and used them as sex slaves in Luoyang, Henan Province was sentenced to death on Friday for several crimes including criminal homicide, rape, organizing prostitution, illegal detention and earning profits by making and distributing pornographic objects.

The verdict was handed down by Luoyang Intermediate People's Court. In addition to the death penalty, 35-year-old Li Hao was deprived of political rights for life and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,606), Xinhua reported.

In August 2009, Li imprisoned the women he lured and kidnapped in a dungeon he had dug and forced them to make pornographic Web shows. During that period, Li forced the six women to have sex with him, Xinhua reported.

The women had been held in the dungeon for between two and 21 months, said Xinhua.

In 2010, Li forced one of the women, surnamed Duan, to help him kill another woman. In March and April of 2011, Li began forcing the women to make pornographic Web shows. Three months later, he ordered three women, including Duan and other two surnamed Jiang and Zhang, to murder another woman in the dungeon.

From August 30 to September 2 in 2011, Li made the women work as prostitutes. The dungeon was discovered after one of the women went to the local police in early September 2011 after she was let out to work as a prostitute.  Police then freed the four women from the dungeon and discovered the two murdered women's bodies there, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

When Li learned the woman had escaped, he admitted what he had done to his younger sister Li Yuan, who gave him 1,000 yuan to escape. Li was arrested by police before he left Luoyang, said the newspaper. 

Given that the three women had participated in the murder under detention and threat, their penalties were reduced. Duan was sentenced to three years in prison and Jiang and Zhang were put on probation. Li Yuan also received probation for the crime of harboring a criminal, Xinhua said.

"The verdict is fair and accords with China's criminal law," Wang Sixin, a law professor at the Communication University of China, told the Global Times on Friday. "Since the case is very cruel and has had rather a bad influence on society, Li deserves the death penalty."

Born in 1977, Li worked at the Luoyang Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision and was formerly a firefighter.

He purchased the basement in 2007 and spent nights constructing the 20-square-meter dungeon located four meters under the basement. Li spent two weeks each month with his captives and told his wife that he had found a part-time job as a gatekeeper, the paper reported.

The women had worked at karaoke bars, hair salons and a massage parlor prior to being kidnapped, a previous police probe showed, said Xinhua.

After the appalling details of the case were exposed, the police chief of Luoyang apologized last year for failing to detect the crime earlier and suspended the work of four policemen in relation to the case, Xinhua reported.