Prosecutors demanded the death penalty Jan. 26 for a Tokyo man on trial for murdering his 23-year-old neighbor, and mutilating and dumping her corpse.

"It was a brutal crime and there is no possibility that the defendant can be rehabilitated," they said in a statement to the Tokyo District Court. Takanori Hoshijima "must pay for his crime with his life."

Hoshijima, 34, has pleaded guilty to forcing Rurika Tojo into his Koto Ward apartment on the night of April 18 with the aim of sexually assaulting her. He stabbed her to death with a kitchen knife.

Between April 19 and May 1, he mutilated the body, flushing some parts down the toilet and dumping others in the apartment's garbage bin, according to the indictment.

When presiding Judge Kiichi Hiraide asked Hoshijima whether he wanted to make a statement, he told the court, "Please hang me without further delay."