He referred to as himself the “hangman” on Twitter and provided to assist folks in ache. However behind that twisted masks of sympathy was one in all Japan’s most cold-blooded serial killers. On Friday, Takahiro Shiraishi, infamously dubbed the “Twitter killer”, was hanged for the homicide of 9 younger folks he met by way of social media, in a case that shocked the nation and reignited debate over the nation’s secretive demise penalty system.Shiraishi, 34, was hanged on the Tokyo detention home, with the execution carried out in secrecy and introduced solely after it was accomplished. The victims, eight girls and one man, aged between 15 and 26, had all expressed suicidal ideas on-line. Shiraishi usually responded to such posts with messages like “Let’s die collectively” and used a deal with that loosely translated to “hangman.” His profile learn: “I need to assist people who find themselves actually in ache. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.” the Jiji information company reported.
Home of horrors
The case got here to mild in October 2017, when police investigating a lacking girl found human stays in Shiraishi’s Zama condominium. Physique components had been saved in coolers and toolboxes, sprinkled with cat litter in an try to masks decomposition. Native media described the flat as a “home of horrors.”He used to lure them to his condominium close to Tokyo, the place he raped and killed the feminine victims, additionally murdering one girl’s boyfriend to silence him. Justice minister Keisuke Suzuki mentioned the murders had been pushed by Shiraishi’s “sexual and monetary needs,” and concerned “theft, rape, homicide, destruction of a corpse and abandonment of corpse.” He added that the crimes triggered “nice shock and nervousness to society.”
Defence brutally rejected
Shiraishi’s authorized crew had argued that the victims had consented to die attributable to their suicidal ideas and therefore demanded decreased sentence on the premise of “homicide with consent”. Additionally they raised issues over his psychological state. Nonetheless, the court docket dismissed each claims. He pleaded responsible in court docket, stating he had killed the victims to fulfill his personal sexual needs, in line with NHK and TV Asahi.The choose referred to as the acts “crafty and merciless,” stating that Shirashi preyed on “mentally fragile” people and violated their dignity.
Public response
The execution has triggered the resumption of public debate on Japan’s use of the demise penalty. Executions in Japan are all the time carried out by hanging, and presently round 100 inmates stay on demise row. Japan and the US are the one G7 international locations that also implement the demise penalty.Shiraishi’s hanging follows different high-profile executions in recent times. In 2022, Tomohiro Kato was executed for a 2008 rampage in Tokyo’s Akihabara district that left seven useless. In 2018, Japan executed cult chief Shoko Asahara and 12 members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect, accountable for the 1995 sarin gasoline assault on Tokyo’s subway system that killed 14 folks and injured 1000’s.
