OSAKA (TR) – A court here earlier this month handed a male Chinese national a prison term over the rape and confinement of a woman in the prefecture two years ago, reports TBS News (Mar. 9).
On March 9, the Osaka District Court sentenced 23-year-old Li Bo-lun to 12 years in prison. The prosecution had sought a 13-year sentence.
According to the verdict, Li entered an apartment building with an automatic lock in June of last year by following a resident. He then conspired with Takashi Yamashita, 44, and Takashi Soma, 33, both of whom he had met online, to attack the woman, aged in her 20s.
Near her apartment, one of them covered her mouth from behind and threatened her. They said, “Be quiet, do you want to be killed?” They then pushed her down and entered her apartment.
Li threatened the woman with a knife, stuffed a cloth-like object into her mouth, wrapped duct tape around her wrists and sexually assaulted her, inflicting injuries that required 10 days to heal. He also filmed the incident.
Presiding judge Mika Araki said, “The crime was meticulously planned, targeting an apartment building with many single women, and involved riding the elevator with a woman who was alone to determine her floor.”
As the incident unfolded the woman’s live-in boyfriend, aged in his 20s, returned home. Li then threatened him with the knife. He also forced the boyfriend to undress and subjected him to assaults and threats, including wrapping duct tape around his wrists and ankles. The boyfriend suffered injuries that required 14 days to heal.
Duct tape around wrists and ankles
During the trial, Li admitted to the charges. Meanwhile, the prosecution stated that “there are no mitigating circumstances or motives for the crime. It was a premeditated crime, and the manner of the crime was extremely despicable.”
In handing down the sentence, Aoki said that “the perpetrators demonstrated a high degree of premeditation.”
She went on, “They sexually assaulted her for approximately an hour and a half, filming the act, forcing her to sign a document called a ‘consent form,’ taking photos of her identification, extracting her workplace and home address, and threatening to kill her and her family, or distribute the video, demonstrating a despicable attempt at concealment.”
She added, “The women suffered severe and unforgivable emotional distress in their own homes, which should have been a safe place. The crime has had a significant impact on the lives of both victims, making it difficult for them to even go out alone.”
