A man surnamed Gao has been convicted on raping and killing 11 females from 1988 to 2002 in Northwest China's Gansu province and North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, after admitting his guilt in court. He was sentenced to death on Friday. Beijing News comments:

Gao was seized in Gansu in 2016, 14 years after his last murder. Although justice has long arms, it was technology that played the crucial role in bringing him to justice.

The Gansu police had fingerprints and DNA samples from the crime scenes, but these were not enough to identify the culprit. And it was not until Y-STR testing was used－Y-STR refers to a short tandem repeat on the Y-chromosome, key genetic information for male, which can be used to track down familial relationships－that the police linked the murderer to a male criminal involved in a bribery case.

The evidence was complete, clear and free of contradictions, and Gao quickly confessed his crimes in face of the Y-STR test and DNA results.

The judicial authorities have paid special attention to protecting Gao's legal rights and interests throughout the process of investigation and court hearing, which has been kept transparent to the public and media, and the Supreme People's Court will review the judgment, a conventional compulsory procedure for all death sentences. However, the verdict is unlikely to be overturned.

Given the effectiveness of Y-STR testing, a national database should be set up which will be useful for hunting down criminal suspects and cracking down on child abductions.