HOHHOT, April 30 (Xinhua) -- The appeal of a serial sex murderer sentenced to death for crimes including a rape and murder for which an 18-year-old was wrongly executed was rejected by the higher court in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Thursday.

The court upheld the verdict against Zhao Zhihong, who was given the death penalty in February after being convicted of crimes including the murder of 10 women.

Zhao was apprehended in 2005 and confessed to a string of rape and murder cases, including one in Hohhot in 1996 that was pinned on 18-year-old Huugjilt. Huugjilt was exonerated in December 2014, 18 years after his execution.

According to the court verdict, Zhao committed 21 crimes between 1996 and 2005 in Inner Mongolia's Hohhot and Ulanqab. Besides a series of attacks that left 10 people dead, it is alleged he raped 12 women and girls in the period.

Zhao was also convicted of using violence or threats to appropriate material property worth 31,400 yuan (about 5,065 U.S.dollars), and stealing a further 3,500 yuan in several burglaries.

The court said Zhao's motives were despicable, his measures cruel and the consequences serious, thus, it refused to give a lenient punishment despite him confessing to some of the crimes.