On his profile, he was called 'hanging pro' and said he wanted to help people

He contacted victims on Twitter and offered to help them with their suicide bids

A Japanese serial murderer who lured suicidal young people to his home before killing and dismembering them used a Twitter profile called 'hanging pro' to snag his victims.

Police said Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, confessed to killing nine people over a two-month spree after he was arrested on Tuesday.

He is also reported to have sexually assaulted the eight women who were among his victims.

Confessions: Takahiro Shiraishi, 27, has said he killed all his victims over a two-month spree and 'sexually assaulted' all of his eight female victims, according to police

His Twitter profile (pictured) explained: 'I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM me anytime'

On Twitter, his profile featured a manga drawing showing a man whose neck and wrist are scarred and who is wearing a rope around his neck alongside a bio describing his expertise in hanging, Japan Times reported.

The profile explained: 'I want to help people who are really in pain. Please DM me anytime.'

In a post made on October 21, Shiraishi wrote: 'Bullying is everywhere, in school and at work.

'There must be many people in society who are suffering after attempting suicides, though their cases are not reported in the news. I want to help such people.'

Suspect Takahiro Shiraishi covers his face with his hands as he is transported to the prosecutor's office from a police station in Tokyo

But it is believed Shiraishi used more than one Twitter account to attract his victims, responding to suicidal posts by saying: 'Let's die together.'

He also ensured his victims were cut off from potential help, writing in an October 6 post: 'It is not good to tell friends, family members and social networking sites that you are going to die before committing suicide.'

Prosecutors are now quizzing Shiraishi, who has reportedly admitted hacking the flesh off the bodies and throwing it out with the trash, then sprinkling cat litter over the remains in an effort to cover up the evidence.

The Mainichi Shimbun has also reported that two of the corpses found in his home showed signs of choking.

Shiraishi is believed to have told police that money was among his reasons for committing the murders, explaining that he took £3,400 from one victim.

It has also been revealed that he worked as a scout for the sex trade in Japan, but was unemployed at the time of the killings.

Four of his victims are thought to have been 17, with the rest in their 20s.

His first victim was a woman whom he got in touch with via Twitter, offering to assist her suicide wish, then killing her boyfriend to silence him, according to the media reports, including NHK public television.

They said Shiraishi used similar tactics to kill seven other women.

The reports explain that one of the women contacted Shiraishi via Twitter in late September, seeking a partner for a suicide pact and saying she was afraid to die alone.

The two were recorded by security cameras walking together outside railway stations near her residence and the suspect's apartment on October 23, the reports added.

'Quiet child' who became sex scout People who lived in the neighborhood remembered the young Shiraishi as a 'quiet child who was able to socialise with neighbours'. At school, his grades were far from stellar but he was an attentive pupil, who 'didn't especially stand out but was not a gloomy character either', according to a former classmate cited in the Asahi Shimbun. He enjoyed athletics and baseball and was 'a good listener rather than someone who would speak about himself', another school contemporary told a local Tokyo paper. One person claiming to be a former schoolmate took to Twitter saying he was so 'normal, inconspicuous and low-profile' that most classmates would not even recognise him when news of his alleged crimes broke. But the warning signs were perhaps there as one elementary-school contemporary told the private Fuji TV network that Shiraishi and his friends enjoyed choking each other for 'fun'. 'He once passed out while playing the choking game,' the man, who did not wish to be identified, told the show. The Mainichi Shimbun has reported that two of the bodies showed signs of strangulation, one had broken neck bones and another had bleeding patterns typically associated with choking. 'Creepy' sex scout with a 'gentle character' After graduating from high school in 2009, Shiraishi got a full-time job at a supermarket but quit just over two years later. At that point, he began to work as a scout for sex parlours in Kabukicho, Tokyo's biggest red-light district, seeking to lure young women into working in the clubs there. In February, he was arrested and eventually handed a suspended jail sentence for recruiting a young woman for a sex shop in the full knowledge that she would be pressed into prostitution. Several people tweeted about a 'creepy scout', with one person apparently employed in the same business as the suspect posting a photo of him with the caption: 'Watch out for this scout.' Shiraishi appeared to have a close relationship with his father, a designer of automobile parts, after his mother and younger sister left to live closer to the girl's school in central Tokyo. And a woman who said she was in a relationship with him until summer 2016 described him as a 'gentle character' who was 'never angry with women.' 'When I told him that I wanted to break up, he hugged me and said something like 'Don't go',' the women told Fuji TV. 'Professional hangman' Things started going downhill for Shiraishi around June this year when he is reported to have told his father: 'I don't know why I'm alive.' On August 22, he moved into the one-room apartment in Zama, a southwestern suburb of Tokyo, that would become the apparent scene of multiple murders. He set up several Twitter accounts, advertising himself as a 'professional hangman' and contacting young women who said they had suicidal tendencies. He is reported to have told investigators that he killed his victims 'as soon as he met them' and then 'did some work on the bodies' to cover up his alleged crimes. According to the Japan Times, he told police that the first time he dismembered a body, it took him three days but that 'from the second person, I was able to do it within a day.' Several media report the police found scissors, knives, a saw and woodwork tools in his flat. One former hostess said on Twitter she had a lucky escape after her parlour turned down Shiraishi, who wanted to take her on a 'date'. 'The parlour politely declined it but if it hadn't, I would have been dead, wouldn't I? I get chills,' tweeted the woman. Advertisement

The woman's brother reported her disappearance to police the next day.

When he sought information about his sister's disappearance on Twitter, an unidentified woman replied that she had met Shiraishi and agreed to cooperate with police by setting up a fake appointment.

Two investigators then followed Shiraishi back to his apartment and knocked on the door, public broadcaster NHK said.

When they asked him if he knew where the missing woman was, Shiraishi pointed to one of eight coolers, saying 'She is in here', NHK said, quoting investigative sources.

In all, some 240 pieces of bone belonging to nine people, including heads and limbs, were discovered inside coolers and toolboxes at his apartment, the Tokyo Shimbun said.

A police official said a toolbox and saw found in Shiraishi's apartment may have been used to dismember the bodies.

They are working to identify the victims.

A local resident looks at an apartment (partialy covered with a blue sheet) where Japanese police found nine bodies in Zama, Kanagawa

Policemen gather in front of an apartment where Japanese police found nine bodies with their heads severed and dumped in cooler boxes in Zama, Kanagawa prefecture

The grisly case has stunned Japan, which enjoys an extremely low crime rate, and pictures of the nondescript house in a quiet residential area were splashed across the country's front pages.

'Killing room,' splashed the Nikkan Sports tabloid. 'One murder a week,' wrote the Sports Nippon.

Shiraishi has told police he contacted his prey via Twitter and killed them 'on the day he met' them, according to several media citing police sources.

He moved to the flat in Zama, a southwestern suburb of Tokyo, on August 22 and contacted victims by tweeting that he would help their suicide plans, the Mainichi Shimbun daily reported.

Police originally found two heads inside a cool box at the entrance to the apartment before making the grisly discovery of seven more, according to Jiji Press.

According to TBS, Shiraishi told police he 'dumped cut flesh and organs in the trash'.

Jiji Press said Shiraishi had told police he chopped up the bodies in a bathroom and a saw was found in his room.

This aerial photo shows the apartment (centre) where police found dismembered bodies in coolers in Zama city, southwest of Tokyo, on Tuesday

Grisly find: Police investigators guard an apartment building (centre, blue sheet) as members of the media crowd around in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Police were led to Shiraishi and his secret stash of bodies while investigating the disappearance of a 23-year-old woman.

This woman had earlier tweeted 'I'm looking for someone to die with me', local reports said. Authorities then discovered a link between her and Shiraishi.

Neighbours later said they had noticed a foul smell coming from the flat.

For now, he has been charged with improper disposal of one body but police are searching for evidence he killed all nine.

While Japan prides itself on its low crime rate, it is no stranger to high-profile violent crimes.

Earlier in October, a 32-year-old father was arrested on suspicion of stabbing his daughter to death. He also admitted torching the house in which his wife and four other children were found dead.

In Japan's bloodiest crime for decades, Satoshi Uematsu faces charges of killing 19 people and attempting to kill or injure 24 others at a disability centre near Tokyo in July 2016.

In 1997 a 14-year-old schoolboy decapitated an 11-year-old acquaintance and placed the head at the gates of his school.