CHIBA (TR) – A court here has handed a former Tokyo police officer a prison term over the rape of a girl on the premises of her apartment building last year.
On March 20, the Matsudo Branch of the Chiba District handed Noriyuki Kobayashi, 39, a prison term of four years and four months for the crime of coerced intercourse.
“As a police officer, he is in a position to protect the public’s safety and deserves strong criticism,” presiding judge Toshihiro Honma said of Kobayashi.
At around 3:30 on May 4, 2022, Kobayashi followed the girl, who was under the age of 13, into her building, and pulled her out of an elevator.
“I’ll kill you if you make a sound,” he reportedly threatened. He then sexually assaulted her for nearly an hour at an outdoor space on the property.
After the incident, the girl visited a nearby police box with her mother and lodged a report. Kobayashi surfaced as a person of interest after an examination of security camera footage and the results of a DNA analysis conducted on evidence left at the scene.
At the time of the incident, Kobayashi was assigned to the department of public safety with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. He had been with the force for about 15 years, weekly tabloid Friday reported last year.
Kobayashi was off-duty on the day of the incident. Chiba police arrested him on October 31.Between the day of the crime and his arrest, a person of nearly six months, Kobayashi worked at the department.
During questioning, he denied the allegations. He was dismissed from the force in December.
