Press "Enter" to skip to content

Italian male accused in groping cases pleads innocence

JR Kisei Hon Line
JR Kisei Hon Line (Wikipedia)
WAKAYAMA (TR) – An Italian male accused of groping women in Goto City entered an innocent plea in the Wakayama District Court on Friday, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 2).

“I did not commit an obscenity,” Vincenzo DeMaio, 40, told the court. The defendant has been charged with indecent assault in two cases.

On March 2 at 9:50 a.m., DeMaio is accused of embracing a woman on a street and touching her chest. He also kissed her. The following day, the defendant is alleged to have kissed two high school girls on the head and fondled their chests and lower bodies as they sat inside a train car on the JR Kisei Hon Line.

DeMaio was first arrested on March 4 for kissing a 21-year-old woman inside a train on the same line. However, DeMaio, accused of violating a public nuisance ordinance, admitted to the charges in that case. “There is no question that I kissed her,” he was quoted by police. “I did not know that (such an act) was in violation of the law in Japan.”