TOKYO (TR) – At some point in the past, Rin Suzuki disclosed to her sister Riko that she was being sexually abused by their father.
Rin, who was adopted, is now 19. The disclosure to her sister happened when she was in junior high school.
The abuse continued on and on after that. After six years of struggling with fear of her father, Riko, now a university student, finally mustered up the courage to report the abuse to the police. Her father was immediately arrested.
However, the matter did not end there.
During interrogation sessions, a male member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police verbally abused Rin. As well, Riko was terrified every day that her father would find out that she had reported the incident to the police, reports Jiji Press (Feb. 23).
The harrowing story shows that victims of sexual abuse and their families continue to suffer even after incidents transpire.
“The lawyer is a fool”
After their father’s arrest, the sisters — both of whose names are pseudonyms in this story — began living in a shelter that temporarily shelters victims of sexual abuse. However, after a while, the staff noticed that Rin was acting strangely.
Immediately after being questioned by the police for “a supplementary investigation,” Rin lost her appetite, her expression became cloudy and she spoke less.
When asked what had happened, Rin hesitantly revealed the content of the police questioning.
The lawyers supporting her later submitted a protest letter to the police. According to it, the male police officer in charge of the questioning had levied her with abusive language in a cramped interrogation room.
“Your father said, “‘Whenever [she] told me to stop, I stopped [the sexual activity], but she didn’t tell me to stop.'”
“You are not a pure victim because your father bought you things,” the officer said. He then dismissed the abuse as merely “household prostitution.”
He went on, “It is impossible for the police to turn something from the past into a crime without evidence or memory. Also, it is showing that the lawyer who is trying to press charges is a fool.”
“Nothing but secondary victimization”
In the protest letter, the lawyer pointed out that the behavior the police caused the victim to be abused a second time.
The letter stated: “The victim was repeatedly forced to have sex with her father for about six years, from the first year of junior high school. She grew up without being able to recognize that she was a ‘victim.’ Given her youth, the length of the period of victimization and the closed relationship, it was impossible for the victim to refuse and run away on her own.”
The letter continued, “The police officer’s words and actions exploited the victim’s anxiety that she may have betrayed her father. It sends message that it was the victim who was wrong, that there was something the victim should be blamed for.”
The letter condemned the actions of the police as “nothing but secondary victimization by an investigative agency.”
According to a Jiji Press source, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department finally apologized more than five months after the protest letter was submitted.
The officer who did the questioning is a deputy chief of a police station in the capital. He reportedly admitted to his lawyer that he had made inappropriate remarks to Rin.
Deployment of female police officers
It is common practice for a female police officer to be in charge of questioning of a woman who has been a victim of sex-related crime.
The 2023 edition of the “White Paper on Crime Victims” compiled by the government lists the police and prosecutors conducting training to understand the feelings of victims and support them. In the section on “Assignment of female police officers, etc.,” it states that the victim should be dealt with by a police officer of the gender they prefer. It adds that the deployment of female police officers is to be promoted.
As of April 2022, there are 12,124 designated investigators in charge of questioning victims of sexual crimes nationwide, of which 8,094 are women. The article proudly states that the police headquarters has appointed a sexual crimes investigation instructor and that a guidance system for sexual crimes investigations has been established by assigning female police officers to supervise investigations.
However, in the aforementioned case, a male police officer was in charge of the interrogation. If the defense’s argument is correct, he verbally abused the victim, which is equivalent to a second rape.
This goes against the principles of the “Basic Act on Crime Victims, etc.”, which advocates the prevention of secondary victimization, and calls into question the effectiveness of the training advocated by the investigative authorities.
“I had a fight with your sister”
Unbelievably, the story continues.
While he was incarcerated, the father sent a letter to Riko, the older sister who reported the abuse to the police herself.
He asked her to come and visit him. Riko obediently complied with the request from her father. The reason was that she did not want her father to know that she was the one who had reported him.
“I was scared that my father would notice that I had reported him,” she said. “I thought that if I went to visit him, he wouldn’t suspect anything.”
The visiting room was as impersonal and bleak as in a television drama.
Her father spoke through the acrylic panel. “I had a fight with your sister,” he said. “I think her friend encouraged her to go to the police.”
While she was astonished by his hackneyed euphemisms, she was relieved that he hadn’t found out what she had done. It was, however, father’s next words revealed the reason why he had summoned her.
“I want you to throw away the bag under my desk at work,” he said. “There are supplements and other things in it, but don’t worry about it, just throw the whole bag away.”
The next weekend, Riko was shocked when she visited his place of work and looked inside the bag. Inside were a large number of empty boxes of erectile dysfunction drugs.
Instead of destroying the evidence, she instead took it to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and submitted it.
“I was scared”
Riko visited the Tokyo District Court for the first hearing for her father. The female reporter for Jiji Press was also in attendance.
“I was curious to see what my father would say and whether he would plead guilty,” Riko said.
The charge was non-consensual sexual intercourse. The Tokyo District Court had decided in advance to keep the participants anonymous, referring to the defendant as “A,” the victim as “B” and so on.
Her father sat in the defendant’s seat. Riko acknowledged that he no longer had the intimidating presence he had when he lived her. “But that didn’t change the fact that I was scared,” she said.
“All I could do was wait for time to pass”
The prosecutor later read out Rin’s desperate pleas one by one.
“It was really disgusting,” she said of her father’s abuse. “All I could do was wait for time to pass, and I had no choice but to drown my emotions, and it felt like my heart was going to break.”
She went on, “I was sad that my father only used me for sexual relief, and that he didn’t care about me as a family member or a daughter.”
“I’m living in a shelter now,” she continued, “but I’m still worried that my father will find me again somewhere and take revenge on me. I want my father to stay in prison as long as possible, so please punish him severely.”
Sobbing could be heard from the gallery. Her father looked down and didn’t respond.
“Ruining my sister’s life”
Riko’s statement was then read out.
“My sister can’t go to high school, and it’s so sad that she has to keep having to deal with my father forever,” she said. “I want him to realize how bad his actions are for ruining my sister’s life.”
What she feared most was then revealed: the fact that she had reported him. However, this did not appear to phase him, the Jiji Press reporter noted.
The court sentenced the father, who had admitted guilt, to six years in prison. The prosecution had requested an 8-year term.
“He abused his position as a stepfather and repeatedly sexually abused his daughter for many years,” the presiding judge said. “This was vile and malicious, ignoring the victim’s dignity, and was also habitual. The physical and mental pain of the victim was immeasurable, and the defendant’s criminal responsibility is heavy.”
It was the moment when Riko finally overcame the fear she had been holding for many years. However, the words and actions of the police and the father left deep wounds in the hearts of the sisters.
“It was shorter than I expected, but I was sure that he was going to prison,” Riko said.
The reporter for Jiji Press thought the sentence was too short as well. However, when she inquired with a senior prosecutor, he said, “It’s actually a heavy charge for one crime.”
In fact, the lawyer representing the victim had asked the police to re-arrest the father for other crimes, such as the first victimization of Rin. If that had happened, the sentence would have been heavier. However, the police did not re-arrest him. During its opening statement, the prosecution only mentioned that “the crimes began when she was 12 years old…”
The senior prosecutor pointed out, “In the case of old crimes, it is difficult to pinpoint the crimes that definitely occurred on a particular day and place. In contrast to the severity of the crimes, the reality is that if the crimes are repeated frequently, it becomes more difficult to investigate.”
