Death sentence for 'the Twitter killer', to which the confessed 30-year-old offender Takahiro Shiraishi -
guilty of killing nine young people, abusing them and dismembering their bodies
- does not intend to appeal.
A gory story, a horror movie script that shocked Japanese public opinion and once again turned the spotlight on the influence of social media and the frailties of people, the reflections of loneliness online and the lack of points of contact. reference.
Under the nickname of 'Hangman', between August and October 2017
Shiraishi lured eight young girls between the ages of 15 and 26, as well as a man, on Twitter,
successfully intercepting their anxieties associated with suicidal tendencies.
The murderer admitted that he acted with the intent to abuse women and rob them of money, adding that despite the confusion none of them had ever given consent to want to die.
The point of the dispute during the trial, in fact, had been precisely the desire or not of the individuals to entrust their last will to the killer
.
An element used by the defense to ask for a reduction of the sentence, and subsequently dismantled by the testimony of the killer himself, who cynically described the resistance of the victims to his attempts at strangulation.
"The crimes we have witnessed are acts of a mythomaniac with the aim of illegally enriching himself and satisfying his sexual desire," said Judge Yano Naokuni in pronouncing the sentence.
"The idea of attracting mentally weak individuals belongs to a clear-headed yet despicable mind."
The verdict also removes all doubts about the ability of the defendant to understand and want,
subjected to a psychiatric examination for five months
before being indicted in 2018. In his apartment in Zama, south of Tokyo, Shirahishi had placed freezers where he kept parts of the body amputated after executions.
The macabre discovery was made by the police, who followed the traces left on the net by what turned out to be one of the latest victims of the monster.
"We have at least proof that
our daughter fought to keep living,
" said the mother of one of the girls who had just turned 21, urging the government and social services to support people seeking assistance to fight a social phenomenon which - thanks to the prolonged phase of the pandemic - risks further aggravation.