Online suicide stalker faces gallows

Hiroshi Maeue, 38, will be hanged for suffocating three people including a 14 year old student and filming the killings.

The court heard how Maeue met a 25-year-old woman online and proposed that they kill themselves together. However when they met to kill each other in February 2005, he bound her with ropes and choked her.

The accused was also convicted of killing a 21-year-old college student and a 14-year-old in a similar way. Maeue later demanded a ransom for the high school student's return after killing him.

Maeue got to know the victims through suicide websites which are causing a few headaches in Japan. Such 'dating' sites link people up who want to visit some nice place and top themselves.

A court-ordered examination found that Maeue did not have any mental disorder and knew what he was doing. The shrinks felt he got some kind of sexual thrill from the whole thing.

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