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In Japan, the trial of a man known as a “Twitter killer” has come to an end: a Tokyo court sentenced Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, to death for nine murders. Shiraishi had contacted his victims, eight women and a man between the ages of 15 and 26, via Twitter. In the process, he made a confession.
On Halloween morning in 2017, Japanese police made a gruesome discovery while searching for a missing woman in Shiraishi’s apartment: Officers found body parts and hundreds of pieces of bones. These were stored in freezers and tool boxes and partially covered with kitty litter to cover the stench.
Shiraishi is said to have sexually abused the women and stole money from all the victims. He also owed one of the women around 360,000 yen, the Kyodo news agency reported. That corresponds to the equivalent of just under 2,900 euros.
According to investigators, Shiraishi had contacted suicidal users on Twitter and promised that he could help them implement their suicide plans or even die with them.
Therefore, his lawyers have requested that Shiraishi only be sentenced to prison for manslaughter if he so requests. All of his victims had suicidal thoughts and therefore consented to his death, they argued. The judge, instead, said, according to the NHK television channel, when the verdict was pronounced, none of those killed had consented to their death, not even tacitly.
“It is devastating that nine young people have been killed,” the judge said accordingly. “The dignity of the victims has been trampled on.”
A psychiatric report had been produced on the accused for five months. The prosecution concluded that he could be held criminally liable and had filed charges in September 2018. In response to the crimes, Twitter in Japan began improving suicide prevention on the platform.
The verdict against the “Twitter killer” caused a sensation in Japan: As NHK reported, more than 400 curious people queued in front of the courthouse in Tokyo on Tuesday to get one of only 16 aisle seats.
Japan is one of the few industrialized nations that still applies the death penalty. Despite international criticism, the approval of the Japanese population remains high. After a death sentence, it often takes years to execute. A Chinese man was last executed in December 2019 for murdering a family of four in Japan.
