TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 48-year-old man over the alleged purchase of saliva and used underwear from a teenage girl earlier this year. Such crimes involving minors reached a record last year, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Aug. 16).
On the night of May 6, the corporate executive, who resides in Tokyo, paid 16,000 yen to the girl, 16, in exchange for her stripping off her underwear and producing saliva inside a vehicle parked in a multi-level garage in Midori Ward of Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
“I thought buying used underwear would satisfy my sexual desire,” the suspect, who was not named, told police. “Over the past 10 years, I’ve done this 10 times.”
The suspect was sent to prosecutors on Wednesday on suspicion of violating a municipal ordinance that prohibits the purchase of such things as used underwear from minors.
According to police, the suspect got to know the girl, a first-year high school student, by responding to a message she posted Twitter. “I’m looking for an older man who will provide me with some spending money,” the girl wrote on the social-networking service.
All-time high
According to the National Police Agency (NPA), the number of children involved in illicit crimes brokered online reached an all-time high of 702 last year. Of that figure, the majority involved child pornography and child prostitution.
About 95 percent of the victims were girls, with around 70 percent of them being aged between 15 and 17, according to the agency.
“Meeting a person you do not know for something simple like acquiring pocket money is dangerous,” an upper-level officer of the NPA was quoted.