OSAKA (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police have arrested a Ghanaian national, 32, over the alleged rape of a middle school girl earlier this year, reports NHK (July 13).
At the end of April, Joseph Belph, a part-time employee, is alleged to have held the girl down inside a park and sexually assaulted her.
The girl suffered unspecified injuries that required 1 week to heal, police said.
Belph, who lives in Osaka City’s Ikuno Ward, has already been prosecuted on suspicion of coerced intercourse. During questioning, he wasn’t exactly able to recall the incident.
“Sex businesses and porn videos alone weren’t enough to satisfy my sexual desire, and this caused stress,” Belph told police.
The case is not the only one involving Belph. He has also been prosecuted over the alleged rape of a woman in her 20s at a shrine in the prefecture in June of last year.
“Pretended to be a foreigner troubled with Japanese”
In the latter incident, the defendant pretended to be lost when he called out to the woman. Afterward, members of her family went to the police.
He became a person of interest after police examined security camera footage and listened to testimony of witnesses.
According to police, Belph used a bicycle to patrol parks and shrines in search of women. After locating a potential victim, he began speaking a mix of English and broken Japanese.
“I pretended to be a foreigner who was troubled [with speaking] a single word of Japanese,” he told police. “It was a way of providing peace of mind and ensuring that I would be treated kindly.”
After offering money to the victim in exchange for sex, he would sexually assault her when she refused.
