TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a former staff member at a special needs facility who is suspected of repeatedly raping a disabled elementary school girl, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Oct. 17).
On several dozen occasions between March 2 and April 29, 2019, Takayuki Miyamoto, 44, is alleged to have sexually assaulted the girl inside a room at the facility, located in Katsushika Ward, and at his residence.
The suspect also filmed the sessions with his smartphone, police said.
Police accounced the arrest of Miyamoto on suspicion of coerced intercourse, indecent assault and the production of child pornography on October 16. “[The acts] were consensual,” he reportedly told investigators.
“Unforgivable”
Miyamoto worked at the facility over a two-year period through August of this year. The matter emerged in September while police investigated another incident.
Police later searched the residence of the suspect and found a USB memory stick with 20 photographs of the girl.
Two security cameras exist at the facility to prevent abuse of pupils, but Miyamoto’s actions were not recorded, police said.
Other pupils have lodged similar complaints, and police are continuing the investigation.
“I treat the pupils like my own children,” the person in charge of the facility said. “I do not know the details of the incidents, but the arrest is unforgivable. [I have been] betrayed.”
