(ANSA) - TOKYO, DEC 15 - Death sentence in Japan for the killer who used Twitter to lure young suicidal victims, killing up to nine people and hiding their corpses in his apartment.
The case of 30-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, resident in the town of Zama, asud of Tokyo, had shocked public opinion and raised serious questions from government authorities and social services about the need to increase assistance to the most vulnerable people seeking help.
According to the facts ascertained by the prosecutor, between August and October 2017 the serial killer strangled eight women, after abusing them, and a man, subsequently dismembering their corpses.
All the victims were between 15 and 26 years old.
The point of contention during the trial, the Japanese media reported, was the presence or at least the consent of individuals - mostly young women who addressed Shiaraishi through the exchange of messages via Twitter, where the same appeared with a nickname in Japanese equivalent to 'Hangman', the executioner.
In issuing the sentence, Judge Yano Naokuni defined the crimes committed by Shirahishi "of extreme ferocity", adding that the case shows how much social media has become an integral part of society.
The prosecution also dismantled the thesis of the defense according to which the accused was incapable of understanding and wanting the act of violence.
Five months of psychiatric examinations before his indictment in September 2018, based on the trial finding, held him fully responsible, and Shiraishi himself said that in the event of death penalty he does not intend to appeal.
The story came to light by chance, in October 2017, during the Halloween party, when the police during a check in his apartment, in search of a missing 23-year-old girl, found several freezers with amputated parts of human bodies inside.
The young woman later turned out to be one of the victims.
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