Trials Unveils Heartbreaking Details of 3-Year-Old’s Abusive Death, Shared by Mother Branded a Demon in Court

A, with whom I was living at the time of the incident, was constantly complaining to me that I was not disciplining my children. She pointed out to me that only a mother can discipline her child, and from then on, I began to raise my hands to my daughter.

The mother confessed this in front of the presiding judge. The reason she became so violent to her daughter that it took her life was because of the complaints of a former bicycle racer she lived with.

 

The real mother is Nana Nagano, 33, who was accused of abandoning her daughter Saki, then 3, who had broken both legs at her home in Kasukabe City, Saitama Prefecture, and hitting her in the face, among other charges.

Saki was rushed to the hospital on December 29, 2021 in an unconscious state, but died soon after from brain damage. She had old and new bruises in multiple places from her head to her legs. And the thigh bones of both legs were broken.

The next day, Nagano and a man living with her, A (37 years old at the time), were arrested by the Saitama Prefectural Police on suspicion of assault and charged with injury in January of the following year. After the first trial on May 9, he was re-arrested on suspicion of abandonment by a person responsible for protection on May 31. In the early morning of March 19, A committed suicide by hanging himself at the detention center of the Kasukabe Police Station.

Nagano had been living separately from her husband since 2019, and lived with her eldest daughter and second daughter Saki. Her husband paid the mortgage on her house, but Nagano managed to cover her living expenses while working at a karaoke bar. Defendant Nagano and former bicycle racer A met in July 2021 at a party attended by about 40 men and women. Later, around late November, A started living with Nagano at his home.

During the trial, which resumed on November 17, 2023, Nagano stated.

My expenses increased due to living together, and I had to work extra shifts.On my days off, I was so tired that I just slept most of the time.When I got home from work, I only saw my kids for about an hour during meals. I just cleaned up after myself and then fell asleep on the sofa.

The children stopped attending daycare, and A was taking care of them at home.

Defendant Nagano was worried about Saki’s upbringing, saying, “Even when I talked to her, she ignored me, looked away from me, and didn’t take me seriously. Nagano also said, “My mother used to abuse me when I was little.So I just tried not to raise my hand,  somehow managing to stop the cycle of violence.

However, A repeatedly pointed out that she was not able to discipline her children, and further added, “Because you were once abused by your mother, you are who you are now.” I started to think, “Isn’t it wrong not to use violence?” and every time A asked me, “Slap me, please,” I started slapping Saki several times.

According to the prosecutor’s opening statement, it appears that Saki suffered broken bones as a result of the violence committed by A on December 19th..

On December 19, A grabbed both of the victim’s legs, forced her legs into a V-shape, and struck her buttocks. The defendant said to A, ‘Are you all right? You’re going to break your bones, aren’t you? On the 21st, while changing the victim’s diaper, the defendant noticed that the victim’s right leg was swollen from the knee up, and asked A, ‘Is your leg okay?

Although he was already retired, A was originally a professional athlete. The violence that was applied to her well-trained body was probably more than a three-year-old girl could endure.

 

On December 23, her own mother continued to assault her. After returning home from her part-time job, Nagano was told by A that Saki had been mean to her sister. When Saki did not apologize even after he scolded her, she began to verbally abuse her.

Mommy, please slap me, and I slapped her on both cheeks. I think I slapped her about 10 times in total. When she still did not apologize, I grabbed her by the hair and pushed her to the floor, kicked her right leg and back, and spanked her.

 

The violence against Saki did not end there, as A exposed her buttocks, spread her legs in a V-shape, and slapped her about 10 times more. The violence continued until Saki apologized .

On December 29, Saki was rushed to the hospital and found a new scar on her face. When Nagano asked A about the wound, he replied, “She didn’t fall down the stairs. I don’t know.

After her arrest, Nagano told the police during questioning that her daughter was unable to walk due to her injuries and that she had been shifting her around by dragging her by the hips. She argued that this did not constitute abandonment of a person responsible for the protection of the child.

 

During the defendant’s questioning, in response to defense counsel’s question about when she first learned that her leg was broken, she answered, “I first learned about it at the hospital on the 29th,” and claimed, “I noticed that her leg was swollen when I changed her diaper, I didn’t think it was necessary to take her to the hospital right away . She then added, “I thought that Mr. A was taking care of my daughters. I regret that I should have been more attentive to them, she sobbed, covering her face.

However, when the prosecutor began to ask questions, her demeanor changed completely. With her mouth quivering, she sometimes refused to answer, saying, “I will refrain from answering now,” or “I will refrain from commenting. She reiterated that she was so busy with work that she only remembered seeing her daughters sitting in chairs eating, and that she had never had a chance to notice that Saki was unable to walk in the first place. The prosecutor asked her if she was trying to pin everything on A, since A was dead.

At the December 25 argument and sentencing, the prosecutor asked for two years and six months in prison. The defense attorney pleaded not guilty to abandonment by a person responsible for protection, saying, “She was injured to the point where she could not walk, and we were not aware that she needed medical treatment,” and asked for a suspended sentence.

On February 26, the trial date arrived. Judge Daisaku Kaneko sentenced Nagano to two years in prison, saying, The manner of the crime was malicious, including leaving the child with a broken bone that caused severe pain for a long period of time.

During the trial on November 17, the prosecutor read out a statement from the eldest daughter.

On the morning of the day Saki died, I woke up to my sister’s voice saying, ‘My legs hurt. My sister couldn’t stand up because of the pain in her legs, so she was always crawling. A has muscles, so my sister cried when she was spanked many times. My sister’s last words were, ‘Tomorrow, I’ll be a good little girl.’

Covering her face, defendant Nagano listened while crying. However, when she returned to the defendant’s seat after being sentenced to prison, she repeatedly twisted her mouth, perhaps out of habit.