A Japanese man who pleaded guilty to killing a string of suicidal people he met on Twitter has been sentenced to death.
Takahiro Shiraishi, a 30-year-old dubbed the “Twitter killer,” was sentenced to die after a court heard how he befriended nine depressed people on Twitter before strangling and dismembering them over the course of three months in 2017.
Judge Naokuni Yano told the court that “none of the nine victims consented to be killed, including by silent consent” before sentencing Shiraishi to death. “It is extremely grave that the lives of nine young people were taken away,” Yano added. “The dignity of the victims was trampled upon.”
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said that more than 400 people had lined up to sit in the public gallery and witness a case that has engulfed Japanese media.
Shiraishi’s Twitter profiled asked people to contact him if they were “really in pain,” adding that his direct messages were open for anyone to reach out. Shiraishi’s defense team argued that private messages sent to the convicted killer were tacit approval of their wish to die and that Shiraishi should not receive the death penalty as a result.
Japanese police were alerted to Shiraishi’s apartment in March 2017. Inside the apartment, police found toolboxes and freezers containing human remains during a search for a young woman who was later identified as one of the bodies.
