Japan executes ‘Twitter killer’ who murdered 9

Japan has executed a person who murdered 9 individuals in 2017, the primary time since 2022 that the nation has enacted capital punishment.

The serial killings by Takahiro Shiraishi, dubbed the “Twitter killer”, had shocked the nation and triggered debate over how suicide was mentioned on-line.

Shiraishi, then 30, lured his victims – most of them younger ladies between the ages of 15 and 26 – to his condo, earlier than strangling and dismembering them.

The killings got here to gentle in October 2017, when police discovered physique elements within the Japanese metropolis of Zama, close to Tokyo, after they had been looking for one of many victims.

Warning: Readers could discover some particulars on this story distressing.

Shiraishi later admitted to murdering 9 suicidal victims and revealed that he obtained acquainted with them on Twitter, the social media platform now often known as X.

He then advised them he may assist them die, and in some instances claimed he would kill himself alongside them.

His Twitter profile contained the phrases: “I need to assist people who find themselves actually in ache. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.”

9 dismembered our bodies had been present in coolers and gear bins when officers visited his flat, which was dubbed by media shops as a “home of horrors”.

Whereas prosecutors sought the demise penalty for Shiraishi, his attorneys argued for the lesser cost of “homicide with consent”, claiming his victims had given their permission to be killed.

Additionally they referred to as for an evaluation of his psychological state.

Shiraishi later disputed his personal defence staff’s model of occasions and stated he killed with out the victims’ consent.

A whole bunch of individuals confirmed up at his verdict listening to in December 2020, when he was sentenced to demise.

The murders additionally prompted a change by Twitter, which amended its guidelines to state customers mustn’t “promote or encourage suicide or self-harm”.

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