Japanese man, Takahiro Shiraishi, dubbed the “Twitter killer” had admitted to murdering nine people in court on Wednesday. The “Twitter killer” was arrested in 2017 after body parts were found in his flat.
The 29-year-old defendant told the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday that the allegations against him were “correct.”
However, his defence team argued that he killed the victims – eight women and one man aged 15 to 26 – with their consent as they had expressed suicidal thoughts on social media, and therefore Shiraishi was guilty of the lesser charge of homicide with consent.
Mr Shiraishi appears to be at odd with his lawyers, telling a local newspaper on Wednesday, that he did not have his victims’ consent to kill them.
“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,” a report in Mainichi Shimbun said.
If Mr Shiraishi is convicted of murder, he faces death by hanging.
What happened?
The prosecution says the accused opened a Twitter account in March 2017 “to contact women contemplating suicide, whom he saw as easy targets”, NHK said.
Eight of his victims were women, one of them aged 15.
The only male victim, aged 20, was killed after confronting Mr Shiraishi about the whereabouts of his girlfriend, Japanese media reported.
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.
His Twitter profile contained the words: “I want to help people who are really in pain. Please Direct message me anytime.
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.
Officers visited Mr Shiraishi’s flat in the Japanese city of Zama, near Tokyo, where they found dismembered body parts.
