A Japanese man has pleaded guilty to murdering nine people after contacting them on Twitter, in a high-profile case that has shocked the country.<\/p>\n
Dubbed the “Twitter killer”, Takahiro Shiraishi was arrested in 2017 after body parts were found in his flat.<\/p>\n
He told a court in Tokyo on Wednesday that the allegations against him “are all correct”.<\/p>\n
But his lawyers argue that his charges should be reduced because his victims apparently gave consent to be killed.<\/p>\n
If convicted of murder, Mr Shiraishi faces the death penalty, which is carried out by hanging in Japan.<\/p>\n
The court case has attracted wide interest, with more than 600 people lining up for 13 public gallery seats to watch the first hearing on Wednesday, reported public broadcaster NHK.<\/p>\n
The prosecution say the accused opened a Twitter account in March 2017 “to contact women contemplating suicide, whom he saw as easy targets”, NHK said.<\/p>\n
Eight of his victims were women, one of them aged 15.<\/p>\n
The only male victim, aged 20, was killed after confronting Mr Shiraishi about the whereabouts of his girlfriend, Japanese media reported.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old is believed to have lured his victims by telling them he could help them die and in some cases claimed he would kill himself alongside them.<\/p>\n
His Twitter profile contained the words: “I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM [direct message] me anytime.”<\/p>\n
The serial killings first came to light when police were looking into the disappearance of a young woman, who later turned out to be one of the victims.<\/p>\n
Officers visited Mr Shiraishi’s flat in the Japanese city of Zama, near Tokyo, where they found dismembered body parts.<\/p>\n
Mr Shiraishi’s lawyers argue his victims had agreed to be killed, so the charges should be reduced to “murder with consent”. This carries a lower prison sentence of between six months and seven years.<\/p>\n
But it is reported that Mr Shiraishi disagrees with his lawyers.<\/p>\n
He told Mainichi Shimbun, a local daily, that he killed without the consent of his victims.<\/p>\n
“There were bruises on the back of the victims’ heads. It means there was no consent and I did it so that they wouldn’t resist,” he said in comments published on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The serial killings have stunned Japan. When they were exposed in 2017 it triggered a new debate about websites on which suicide is discussed. At the time the government indicated it may introduce new regulations.<\/p>\n
The murders also prompted a change by Twitter, which amended its rules to state users should not “promote or encourage suicide or self-harm”.<\/p>\n
Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey said at the time the case was “extremely” sad.<\/p>\n
Japan has long battled one of the highest suicide rates in the industrialised world although figures have dropped since preventative measures were introduced more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"