Twitter killer
When my eye first noted a BBC headline declaring Twitter killer
, I thought it was about a new rival to the messaging app for the brain dead. But this is an altogether more macabre story.
Takahiro Shiraishi has pleaded guilty to murdering nine people after body parts were found in his flat. He contacted his victims on Twitter, by soliciting women who were contemplating suicide. According to his legal team, he should be spared the death penalty on the basis that they allegedly gave consent to be killed. Surprisingly, the defendant has rebuffed that line of defence by claiming that he killed them without their consent.
But the case for murder might be clearer at least for one victim. Although eight of the victims were women that he lured on Twitter, one was a man who was killed after confronting Mr Shiraishi about the whereabouts of his girlfriend
, according to Japanese media.
The BBC's report doesn't clarify how Shiraishi's legal team plan to whitewash that one.