A man from Central China's Henan Province, who kept six female sex slaves in a dungeon and ultimately killed two of them, was executed on Tuesday.

Li Hao, 36, was convicted of murder, rape, illegal detention, organized prostitution and manufacturing pornography for profit.

He was sentenced to death, deprived of political rights for life and fined 10,000 yuan ($1,650) at the first trial at  Luoyang Intermediate People's Court in November 2012.

A higher court in Henan Province upheld the ruling after Li lodged an appeal. The death penalty was approved by the Supreme People's Court.

Li dug the dungeon himself under a basement he bought in Luoyang in August 2009. The six women Li tricked into coming home with him were held there for between two and 21 months. 

Li, a former clerk with the Luoyang technological supervision bureau, repeatedly raped the women and forced them to appear in obscene online shows from March to April 2011 and forced them to have sex with customers from late August to early September in 2011.

The dungeon was discovered when one of the women escaped. In a bizarre twist in the case, three of Li's sex slaves, surnamed Duan, Jiang and Zhang, were also found guilty of murder as they killed the other two women in the dungeon on Li's instructions.

The three women were shown leniency. Duan, who was found to have killed both women, was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other two were put on probation.

Li's motive was to make money by forcing the women into prostitution or to appear in obscene online videos.

When he was arrested in September 2011, Li was married and had an 8-month-old son. He was executed after meeting close relatives.

Luoyang police chief apologized and suspended four police officers.

Xinhua