Japanese man gets death sentence for Kyoto Animation studio arson attack that killed 36 people

Shinji Aoba, now 45, broke into the building, spread petrol around the ground floor, lit it and shouted “drop dead” on the morning of July 18, 2019, survivors said.

Many of those killed were young, including a 21-year-old woman.

A number of victims were found on a spiral stairwell leading to the roof, suggesting they were overcome as they desperately tried to escape.

“There was a person who jumped from the second floor … but we couldn’t rush to help because the fire was so strong,” one woman told local media at the time.

“It was like I was looking at hell.”

More than 30 others were injured, with firefighters calling the incident “unprecedented” and saying that rescuing people trapped inside was “extremely difficult”.

Aoba’s lawyers entered a plea of not guilty, saying he “did not have the capacity to distinguish between good and bad and to stop committing the crime due to a mental disorder”.

But on Thursday, the judge ruled Aoba was “neither insane nor suffering diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime”, NHK reported.

Aoba remained seated when bowing with others present at the start of court proceedings. When asked if he had anything to say before the court announced his sentence, an emotionless Aoba said he did not.

Inside the courtroom packed with family members of the victims, one person cried and covered their eyes as the judge spoke, the broadcaster reported.

Later the court handed down a sentence of capital punishment, local media reported.

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Japan shocked by deadly fire at anime studio

The high-profile trial attracted 409 members of the public who queued outside the courtroom amid snowy conditions to secure tickets to observe proceedings.

“I didn’t think so many people would die, and now I think I went too far,”