Takahiro Shiraishi covering his face is seen on departure at Takao Police Station in 2017 (Picture: Getty)

A man dubbed the ‘Twitter killer’ has been hanged for murdering and dismembering nine people.

Takahiro Shiraishi was executed today in the first use of capital punishment in Japan in nearly three years.

Eight of his victims were women – including three schoolgirls – who he killed after raping them. He also killed a boyfriend of one of the women to silence him.

He was captured in 2017 and sentenced to death three years later after parts of the victims’ bodies were discovered in his small flat in the city of Zama near Tokyo.

Three cooler boxes and five containers were stored in his room,containing human heads and bones with the flesh scraped off.

The killer was given the sinister nickname after stalking women,who were contemplating suicide,on social media.

Using a handle which loosely translates as ‘hangman,’ he invited them to his home,promising to help them die,the Jiji news agency reported,citing the indictment.

Shiraishi pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering the victims,telling the court that he had killed them to satisfy his own sexual desires.

Shiraishi confessed to killing the victims and cutting them up (Picture: ANN News)

Even before his move to Zama,he had worked as a scout  for sex parlours in Kabukicho,Tokyo’s biggest red-light district,seeking to lure women into working in the clubs there.

At this stage,people had started warning locals about him,describing him as a ‘creepy scout’.

The high-profile case had gripped Japan for years,raising concerns over the use of social media.

Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki said he authorizied the punishment after careful examination of the case,taking into account the convict’s ‘extremely selfish’ motive for crimes that ’caused great shock and unrest to society’.

Police found nine dismembered corpses in his flat (Picture: AFP)

Capital punishment is carried out by hanging in Japan and prisoners are notified of their execution hours before it is carried out.

This has long been decried by human rights groups for the stress it puts on death-row prisoners.

‘It is not appropriate to abolish the death penalty while these violent crimes are still being committed,’ Suzuki said.

There are currently 105 death row inmates in Japan.