A Japanese man has pleaded guilty to murdering nine people, most of whom he found using Twitter, in a case that shocked the country.
Takahiro Shiraishi was arrested in 2017 after police discovered body parts in his flat near Tokyo. The 29 year old admitted to killing nine people, but argued for a lesser sentence as he claims his victims gave consent. In March 2017 he set up a Twitter account to find suicidal women, offering to ‘help people who are really in pain’, according to the BBC.
All but one of his victims were young females, including a 15 year old schoolgirl. His only male victims was a 20 year old who confronted him about the whereabouts of his girlfriend,
Now that he has pled guilty, it is likely Shiraishi will face the death penalty which in Japan is carried out with hanging. The case has raised awareness to suicide subcultures existing on Japan’s internet, which the killer was able to exploit to carry out his killings. Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the industrialised world.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he was ‘extremely sad’ that his platform had been used for murder.
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