YAMANASHI (TR) – A court here has sentenced a former credit federation employee to 20 years in prison over the murder of a female colleague last year. During the trial, it was revealed that the defendant repeatedly sexually harassed the victim before killing her, reports NHK (June 13).
In her ruling handed down at the Kofu District Court on Friday, presiding judge Makiko Nishino pointed out that crimes committed by Shota Ozao, 36, were “selfish, self-centered and shortsighted.”
She went on, “The manner of the crime, in which the victim continued to strangle the victim with great force, was dangerous and vicious, and the strong intent to kill was clear.”
The court convicted Ozao, a former employee at the Yamanashi Prefectural Credit Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives, convicted on charges of murder and abandoning a corpse.
On the night April 30 last year, Ozao strangled his 40-year-old female colleague, then 40, with both hands in the parking lot of their workplace in Kofu City. He then dumped her body in a riverbed in the town of Minobu.
During the trial, Ozao admitted to the charges. The prosecution had sought a prison sentence of 22 years.
Sexual harassment
In the prosecution’s opening statement, they said that Ozao took tosatsu (voyeur) pictures of the woman’s underwear by inserting his smartphone under her skirt from behind on 36 occasions between May and August 2022.
In April of last year, he installed a small USB camera on the partition in front of the woman’s locker and pointed the lens up her skirt to take pictures of her underwear.
Also, three years ago, just before he divorced his wife, Ozao asked the woman to go out with him, but she turned him down. On April 19 last year, while the woman was working overtime, he asked her, “Would you like to go to a hotel?” he added, “I’d like to do it once.” However, he up when the woman told him, “I’ll call the police.”
“Excessive love”
At around 4:30 p.m. on April 30, Ozao was called in by his boss, who had been consulted by the woman. He asked, “Have you said anything that could be considered sexual harassment to female employees?” He replied, “I have said it jokingly.”
The prosecution pointed out that Ozao’s behavior at work was perceived as sexual harassment. As a result, he could not bear the cold attitude he received from the woman. So he thought, “If our relationship cannot be restored, I have no choice but to kill her to maintain peace in my life.”
At around 5:30 pm that same day, Ozao ambushed the woman in the office parking lot. He ran up to her after she finished work and was getting into her car.
When she told him, “There is nothing to say” and “I will call the police,” he decided to kill her. After he strangled her from behind, she cried out for help. He then covered her mouth with his hand and continued to strangle her.
In addition, during questioning, Ozao revealed that he had been taking illicit photos of the victim almost every day for four years before he committed the crime. When asked why he could not stop, he said, “I think it was because of excessive love.”
The defense claimed the crimes committed by Ozao were not planned nice he had feelings for the woman. “It was a spontaneous crime in which he did not prepare a weapon beforehand,” they said.
