IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a 38-year-old man over the alleged abduction of a teenage girl last month, reports the Sankei Shimbun (July 31).
On July 2, Yoji Mitome, a company employee, communicated with the girl, 16, via a social-networking site. “I’ve prepared a residence,” he reportedly wrote to her. “I’ll take care of you until you are an adult.”
The following day, the the suspect allegedly lured the girl, a second-year high school student, out to a railway station in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, which is where he lives.
Mitome then kept the girl at the residence of an acquaintance and other locations until July 7.
The suspect denies the allegations, according to the Joso Police Station.
On July 3, the mother of the girl reported her missing with police. Four days later, the suspect requested that he, the girl and her mother hold “a discussion” at a family restaurant in Hiratsuka on July 7.
Upon the arrival of the suspect at the restaurant, police apprehended him. As well, the girl was taken into protective custody.
