Guesthouse Owner Arrested for 8th Time for Allegedly Giving Sleeping Pills to Female Guests
For the eighth time, Takeuchi was arrested for sexually assaulting a female customer.
On April 3, Okayama Prefectural Police re-arrested Toshiharu Takeuchi, 49, who has been indicted on charges including quasi-forcible sexual intercourse, on suspicion of indecent assault. Takeuchi is the former manager of Cafe & GuestHouse “TSUCHIYA,” a guesthouse in Satosho Town, Okayama Prefecture. In October 2009, he committed an indecent act against a woman in her 20s who was staying alone.
Takeuchi apparently made the woman drink alcohol mixed with a sleeping drug. The defendant is alleged to have intoxicated the woman, rendering her incapable of resisting, and then sexually assaulted her. Takeuchi denied the charges, saying he could not think of the victim’s name when questioned by the police.
FRIDAY Digital” reported on October 12 last year that Takeuchi allegedly committed indecent acts on several female customers. We would like to reprint the article and review the details of the incident in which Takeuchi is alleged to have committed the crime in a similar manner (some content has been changed).
Trouble with neighbors
A woman in her 30s who visited the guesthouse said that she had no recollection of the two times she stayed there for an extended period of time. However, from the large amount of images and videos seized by the police, the possibility emerged that the woman, who was in a coma, had been sexually assaulted. It is suspected that she was drugged and subjected to indecent acts.
On October 10, 2011, the Okayama Prefectural Police Investigation Section 1 arrested Takeuchi on suspicion of quasi-forcible sexual intercourse and quasi-forcible indecency. He is alleged to have given Ms. A, a female guest in her 30s living in Kyoto Prefecture, a sleeping drug and sexually assaulted her. Takeuchi told the police, “I did not make her take the drug. The defendant denies the crime, saying, “I didn’t give her any drugs.
In July and August of 2008, Ms. A stayed alone at Takeuchi’s “Decooya” on two occasions. In both cases, she has almost no memory of what happened before going to bed. He was not even aware that he had been victimized. Mr. A is not the only one suspected of having been subjected to indecent acts. In August 2007, Takeuchi also drugged and raped Ms. B, a woman in her 30s from Kanagawa Prefecture. He was arrested and charged in September of last year. The crime was repeated several times from the night to the morning of the next day.
After the incident was discovered, the prefectural police received numerous reports that she might have been a victim. Even when he refused to stop, he was unable to resist, perhaps because of the effects of the drugs. From the images and videos seized from Takeuchi’s computer and the “convex shop,” the charges against Mr. A were also revealed.
Takeuchi opened “Deco-ya” about five years ago, renovating an old private house that had been vacant for about 20 years, with reasonable rates starting at 6,000 yen per night with two meals and 3,000 yen for a one-night stay.
The hotel was frequently introduced in travel magazines and on travel websites. The building with a tea ceremony room, which was renovated from an old private house, and the nabe dishes and robatayaki, which are mainly wild vegetables, were highly rated and won high acclaim. Guests came from all over the country to stay at the hotel.
On the other hand, there were constant troubles with neighbors. We heard that he often argued with people living nearby over boundaries. There have also been rumors on the Internet for some time about female guests vomiting, possibly due to drug contamination” (travel website editor).
The defendant Takeuchi had posted many pictures of scenic beauty on his Facebook page, claiming that his inn was “a place where women alone can stay in peace. Even though he has been arrested for the eighth time, he has not expressed any remorse or apologized to the victim.
