The police chief of a central Chinese city yesterday made a public apology for failing to detect earlier the secret dungeon where a man kept young women as sex slaves for almost two years and killing two of them.
Guo Congbin, director of the public security bureau of Luoyang in Henan Province, told a police meeting with the media present that the case showed that community safety patrols were weak and police officers had lost their sense of responsibility.
"As the police chief, I bear the responsibility," Guo said, adding that he had suspended the work of four district police officials in relation to the case.
Police investigators earlier said Li Hao, the 34-year-old married suspect who has a son, forced six women held as sex slaves into prostitution and to feature in porno videos uploaded on the Internet to make money.
Li said he dug two underground rooms in a basement he bought in a residential compound two years ago wanting to enter the lucrative business of running pornographic websites, according to police.
Police said Li regularly raped the women, held from two months to 21 months, and forced them to perform porn shows and prostitution.
Two women who fought back were tortured, and eventually killed, police added. Their bodies were only found on September 3 when police raided the basement on a tip off from relatives of one of the captive women who had managed to escape.
A report in Southern Metropolis Daily, which broke the story, said the women, both nightclub attendants, had been dead for months but police have not yet confirmed this information.
Li, who works for Luoyang's technological supervision bureau, is in police custody.
Police also detained the four surviving women for "alleged crime involvement" after the newspaper report said that while competing to survive in the dungeon, they might have helped Li kill the other two.
In a similar case six years ago, 13 women who had worked in karaoke bars and small restaurants in Shandong Province were murdered by four men. Their bodies were buried along a riverbank in remote villages and were found more than six months later.
The country has been shocked by the graphic details of the Luoyang case, prompting local authorities to launch an overhaul of entertainment venues - beauty parlors, karaoke halls, saunas and Internet cafes -- and an "online cleansing" campaign to crack down on pornographic websites.
Guo said the city will leave no "dirty spots"
Guo Congbin, director of the public security bureau of Luoyang in Henan Province, told a police meeting with the media present that the case showed that community safety patrols were weak and police officers had lost their sense of responsibility.
"As the police chief, I bear the responsibility," Guo said, adding that he had suspended the work of four district police officials in relation to the case.
Police investigators earlier said Li Hao, the 34-year-old married suspect who has a son, forced six women held as sex slaves into prostitution and to feature in porno videos uploaded on the Internet to make money.
Li said he dug two underground rooms in a basement he bought in a residential compound two years ago wanting to enter the lucrative business of running pornographic websites, according to police.
Police said Li regularly raped the women, held from two months to 21 months, and forced them to perform porn shows and prostitution.
Two women who fought back were tortured, and eventually killed, police added. Their bodies were only found on September 3 when police raided the basement on a tip off from relatives of one of the captive women who had managed to escape.
A report in Southern Metropolis Daily, which broke the story, said the women, both nightclub attendants, had been dead for months but police have not yet confirmed this information.
Li, who works for Luoyang's technological supervision bureau, is in police custody.
Police also detained the four surviving women for "alleged crime involvement" after the newspaper report said that while competing to survive in the dungeon, they might have helped Li kill the other two.
In a similar case six years ago, 13 women who had worked in karaoke bars and small restaurants in Shandong Province were murdered by four men. Their bodies were buried along a riverbank in remote villages and were found more than six months later.
The country has been shocked by the graphic details of the Luoyang case, prompting local authorities to launch an overhaul of entertainment venues - beauty parlors, karaoke halls, saunas and Internet cafes -- and an "online cleansing" campaign to crack down on pornographic websites.
Guo said the city will leave no "dirty spots"
