A district court in Tokyo on December 15 sentenced a man to death for murdering nine people he met on Twitter in 2017, Reuters reported.

Takahiro Shiraishi, 30, was found guilty of killing and slaughtering the bodies of eight women and one man in Kanagawa. Investigations revealed that from August to October 2017, he contacted the people—who were expressing suicidal thoughts—on Twitter, inviting them to his apartment and promising to help them die.

The lawyers of the defendant argued that the victims gave him approval for the murder, according to the report.

However, Presiding Judge Naokuni Yano ruled that the victims did not consent to being killed, and that Shiraishi was responsible for their deaths. The defendant also reportedly sexually assaulted all his female victims

Twitter Japan has not released a statement, nor a comment yet.