China: Police rescue four missing women held as sex slaves in underground dungeon

[News_Editor]

China: Police rescue four missing women held as sex slaves in underground dungeon

2011-09-24 10:41:54 GMT+7 (ICT)

LUOYANG (BNO NEWS) -- Chinese police have rescued four young women who were abducted and being held as sex slaves in a secret underground dungeon for up to two years, officials said on Saturday.

Police said the women, aged 16 to 24, were being held in chambers underground a building in Luoyang, a prefecture-level city in western Henan province of central China. The bodies of two other women were found buried in one of the chambers.

Li Hao, a 34-year-old man who worked at the city's quality supervision bureau, was arrested early this month on suspicious of kidnapping the six women and using them as sex slaves for up to two years. The case was not earlier reported by Chinese officials.

According to Chinese media, Li kept the women weak on purpose so they would be unable to flee the chambers or resist his sexual abuse. He allegedly fed them no more than once in two days, making them physically weak.

The shocking case was discovered when one of the women escaped on September 6. The woman told police that Li had briefly let her out of the dungeon in order to have sex with other men. She said this happened previously when Li needed money.

It is believed Li spent up to two years digging the two small rooms underneath a basement before abducting the young women, who worked at nightclubs and karaoke bars. His family was not aware of his crimes as the dungeon was located underneath a building away from his home.

Police said the women are believed to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors, sometimes to the point of defending them.

One Chinese newspaper, which first reported the case, claimed one of the sex slaves was killed by another woman as they fought for the attention of their abductor. It was not immediately clear what happened to the women after they were rescued, but state-run media reported the women had been 'detained' although it did not clarify if it meant they had been arrested or were being held due to their mental condition.

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