FUKUOKA (TR) – A court here on Friday handed a six-year and six-month prison term to a man over the rape of a 12-year-old girl last year, reports RKB (July 21).
In handing down the ruling to Takanori Yatsunami, 20, the presiding judge said, “The victim has suffered great fear and pain, which has affected her ability to attend school and live her daily life.”
According to the ruling, Yatsunami, a resident of Munakata City, covered the mouth of the girl, then a sixth-year elementary school student, as she walked to school alone on a street in Fukuoka Prefecture last November. He then sexually assaulted her.
“This was a vile and malicious crime that violated her dignity,” the presiding judge added.
“Leave a permanent scar”
During the trial, which began in February, the defendant admitted to allegations of non-consensual sexual intercourse, according to previous reports.
“I quit my job and became desperate, and I wanted to hurt someone,” Yatsunami said at the opening of the trial. “I had sex to make it easier to leave a permanent scar, rather than punching and kicking.”
The girl testified that she was being followed just before the incident. “When I got scared and ran away, he covered my mouth,” she said. “When I yelled, he said, ‘I’ll kill you with a kitchen knife.’
Yatsunami then forced her onto all fours and had her take off her underwear. “A bus passed by and he stopped [the act] and said, ‘Let’s go to the back gate [of the school].’ He put semen in my mouth and told me to swallow it, and I swallowed it because I thought I would be killed if I didn’t listen to him.”
“I will never forgive him”
The father of the girl also testified. “My daughter can no longer be alone, day or night,” he said. “She has become afraid of men and cannot be alone, even with her father. Even if he goes to prison, the wounds she has suffered will not heal. I will never forgive him.”
The defense said in the opening session that it had an intention for the defendant to undergo medical treatment to prevent a recurrence. The defense also planned to submit documents related to this treatment as mitigating evidence.
