Twitter Killer Sentenced To Death in Japan
One Male and Eight Females with Suicidal Tendencies Dismembered By the Killer inside His Apartment
The individual who was behind the murder of nine people, after getting in contact with them through the social media platform Twitter, has been sentenced to death in Japan after being involved with a high profile case that shocked many people. The Twitter killer, Takahiro Shirashi, was arrested in the year 2017 after dismembered human body parts were found in his apartment.
The 30 years old Twitter killer had admitted to dismembering and murdering the nine victims, most of them were young females that he contacted through Twitter. The sequential murders also triggered a debate over how suicidal attempts are discussed over an online platform.
To watch the final verdict against the twitter killer, more than 400 people were present on Tuesday, despite the limited number of 16 seats available for the public in the courtroom. Japan is one of the few developed countries across the world that has a high rate of public support for the death penalty.
Finding victims on Twitter
Takahiro Shiraishi used the social networking platform Twitter to lure women with suicidal tendencies to his flat, saying that he would be able to help them to not fail in the suicidal attempt. In some of the cases, the Twitter killer also claimed that he would also die alongside them in their attempt to kill themselves.
The twitter killer was able to dismember and strangle eight females along with one male with ages between 15 to 26 years, during the time duration from August to October in the year 2017. The initial report for the serial killings was made on Halloween of the same year, when the local police department was able to find different dismembered body parts inside the flat owned by Shiraishi, which is located in the city of Zama, near the Japanese capital city of Tokyo.
The police were actually searching for a missing female aged 23 years, who later turned out to be one of the Twitter killer’s victims. After the female had gone missing for a few days, her brother accessed her Twitter account and was timely, able to alert the police of a suspicious account in her direct messages, which lead the police to the residence of Shiraishi in the early morning hours of October 31, 2017.
After the teams of investigators from the police department found nine dismembered heads inside the apartment of the Twitter killer along with multiple legs and arm bones stored inside the toolbox and cooler, due to which the local Japanese media called it the ‘house of horrors’.
Court trial of the twitter killer
The death penalty was finalized by the prosecutors after the trial of the Twitter killer Takahiro Shiraishi. Although the lawyers presenting his case argued that the penalty for him should be reduced as of the charge of ‘murder with consent’, as he claimed that all of his nine victims gave their permission to him to be murdered.
But later, when asked, the Twitter killer was in dispute with his lawyers and their version of the series of events that took place, stating that he killed all those people without gaining their consent. The Judge who passed the death penalty verdict for Shiraishi on Tuesday, Naokuni Yano, stated that the crimes committed by the Twitter killer have been cruel and cunning and found the defendant to be completely responsible for his distressing actions.
Not one of the nine victims provided their consent to be murdered by the Twitter killer, not even a silent consent despite trying to attempt suicide due to their personal reasons. Judge Yano also said that the series of murderous events are depressing as nine young lives were taken away, and the dignity and image of those victims were also trampled upon by the killer.
Impact of the case across Japan
The series of unfortunate events caused by the twitter killer in Japan has proved to be shocking to the general public. The case has also triggered fresh new debates about attempting suicide and helping those individuals who are considering it, along with those websites online where suicidal attempts are discussed.
The case has also provoked anxiety across society as social networking platforms are commonly being used by almost every individual. The murders also had an impact on Twitter, as they amended their rules and regulations, telling their users not to encourage or promote any self-harming action or suicide.