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Tochigi court hands man 17-year sentence over murder of girlfriend

Ryu Sugeno
A Tochigi court handed Ryu Sugeno a 17-year prison term over the stabbing death of his girlfriend in Utsunomiya City last year (TV Asahi)

TOCHIGI (TR) – The Tochigi District Court on Monday handed down a 17-year prison sentence to a  27-year-old man over the stabbing death of his girlfriend in Utsunomiya City last year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 12) .

Presiding judge Motoi Sato said that Ryu Sugeno, a former factory worker,  acted egotistically in stabbing Sakiko Nemoto, a 28-year-old nurse, to death after finding that she was seeing another man. “People who kill to reduce their own suffering deserve strong condemnation,” the judge said.

The prosecution had sought an 18-year term.

On December 10, Sugeno allegedly used a kitchen knife to stab Nemoto inside her residence, according to the indictment. The results of an autopsy revealed that Nemoto had been stabbed in about 10 locations on her body.

“With her seeing another man, I wanted to kill her,” the suspect was quoted by police at the time.

Sugeno was later apprehended after he was found inside Nemoto’s vehicle in Motomiya City, Fukushima Prefecture.

The family of Nemoto said in statement through a lawyer that it felt the 17-year sentence was lenient. “However, we that it is the result of various considerations, so we have to accept it,” the statement read. “In the future, we would like to return to a life of peace little by little.”