AICHI (TR) – A court in Nagoya last week sentenced a former temporary teacher at an elementary school to four years in prison for forcing pupils to engage in sexual acts, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 12).
According to the ruling, Toshihiro Ota, 30, who while employed at the school, located in Chita City, engaged in acts deemed obscene with five male and female students, aged between 6 and 8, over a seven-month period through May of 2017.
“To misuse a teaching position is reprehensible and worthy of strong condemnation,” presiding judge Mitsuru Nomura said at the the Okazaki Branch of the Nagoya District Court in handing down the ruling.
The prosecution had sought a seven-year term in the case.
During the trial, the prosecutor described how the defendant lured two of the victims, both girls, into a toilet at the school by claiming to have suffered a small injury for which he needed help.
Arrested in Saitama
In June of 2013, Ota was arrested for violating the anti-child pornography law while employed at an elementary school in Saitama Prefecture. In the case, he was accused of distributing images of nude children by email.
After being suspended by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education for six months, Ota resigned from his post. In November of 2014, he changed his first name from Tomohiro to Toshihiro in his family registry. He then began the teaching position in Chita in April of the following year.
