Chinese courts have sentenced two serial killers to death in a pair of unrelated cases that resulted in a total of 27 deaths and horrified a nation. One of the killers found his victims at video-game parlors and Internet cafes.
Huang Yong, 29, was sentenced yesterday for killing 17 young men he had lured to his home from Internet cafes and video arcades, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
His death sentence was decided immediately after a three-hour public trial yesterday morning at the Pingyu County People's Court in Henan Province, CCTV said.
It wasn't clear if Huang would appeal the sentence. He has reportedly confessed to the murders, and CCTV said he confessed again in court yesterday.
Huang was arrested earlier this month after his latest target managed to escape a torture session by promising to support him in his old age, Chinese newspa-pers have reported.
When police arrested him, they uncovered the remains of more than a dozen young men in his home. Huang reportedly confessed to killing 25 over the past two years, the reports have said.
His victims were all between 15 and 21 years old, CCTV said yesterday.
In Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, 20-year-old rubbish recycler Chen Yong-feng was sentenced to death on Monday for murdering 10 competitors, China News Service reported.
Chen made his living picking through garbage and selling any recoverable material, a trade that attracts poor migrants. But when business proved tough, he began robbing and killing his competitors -- and dismembering their bodies, the report said.
When he was arrested in May, the Beijing Evening News reported that the killings had left Wenzhou "in the grip of terror, with residents looking at the eyes of outsiders and filled with doubt and fear."
Police arrested Chen when they knocked on his door to ask him to move an old bicycle parked outside, the paper said at the time. He opened the door and the officers saw his home spattered with the blood of his latest victim, the bicycle's owner, it said.
Chen is reportedly planning to appeal his conviction.
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