KOCHI (TR) – A married Kochi Prefectural Police lieutenant has been dismissed from duty after having sex multiple times inside a koban (police box) while on duty and sexually assaulting female colleagues, police announced on Friday, reports Sansan TV (Nov. 13).
The officer, an assistant police inspector in his 40s assigned to the Police Affairs Division, was referred to prosecutors on November 13 on suspicion of non-consensual sexual indecency.
According to police, the suspect invited a female staff member to his residence in September following a drinking session at a local restaurant, where he fondled her breasts without consent.
“I did something terrible to the victim,” the officer was quoted by investigators as saying. “I could not suppress my sexual desire.”
The investigation revealed a wider pattern of sexual misconduct spanning several years and involving a total of four female police personnel.
Between May and September of this year, the officer committed sexual harassment against a second female employee by touching her breasts and thighs both at eateries and inside a police station.
Investigators also uncovered that between November 2018 and March 2019, the married lieutenant carried on an affair with a then-unmarried female sergeant in her 30s. During that period, the pair engaged in sexual intercourse on multiple occasions inside a police box while on duty. The couple broke off the relationship before rekindling their tryst between April 2024 and February.
The female sergeant involved in the on-duty affair received a disciplinary 10-percent pay cut for one month on Wednesday.
Furthermore, the lieutenant carried on an inappropriate relationship with another female sergeant in her 30s between March and April 2021. That officer received a departmental warning.
The prefectural police handed the lieutenant a disciplinary dismissal on Friday for his actions involving the four women, marking the second time this year an officer from the force has been sacked.
Yasuhiro Iwata, the chief of the Kochi Prefectural Police, issued a statement saying, “We will thoroughly implement recurrence-prevention measures that include a comprehensive review of our organizational operations.”
