A former employee of a recruiting subsidiary has been arrested nine times for sexual assault…

In the courtroom, he replied in a muffled voice…

On August 31, the first trial of Kenjiro Maruta, 31, was held at the Tokyo District Court (Presiding Judge Takumi Suzuki) on charges of quasi-forcible sexual intercourse and home invasion.

On this day, the indictment was read and the evidentiary documents were examined in relation to three cases involving “Company Employee A,” “University Student B,” and “University Student C,” which were part of the six indictments.

According to the indictment, in June 2020, the defendant, who was an employee of Recruit Communications, mixed a sleeping drug into Ms. A’s drink while she was eating and drinking. After she drank the drug without knowing it, he had sexual intercourse with her at his home when she became unable to resist.

Furthermore, in July and October of the same year, he allegedly used the same method to make Ms. B and Ms. C, university students he had met through a job-hunting matching app, fall into a state of refusal and then have intercourse with them. At the time of the crimes, he was filming the events with his smartphone.

Maruta appeared in the courtroom wearing a suit and a shaved head, his mouth covered by a mask, but his dark eyebrows and long slit eyes were impressive. He often glanced at the audience, as if he was paying attention to the faces of the witnesses. At his arraignment, he answered in a muffled whisper, such as “…… definitely ……,” and the presiding judge often asked, “What? “I can’t hear you!” “I can’t hear you!” He was often warned to speak a little louder.

It is said that he used to tutor job hunters on how to find a job, but he was not a role model for them. The only thing he denied was the case of “University Student C.” He whispered, “I don’t remember, and I never intended …… to make him take drugs.

Although he appeared weak in court, his opening statement and evidence revealed a different side of him. He asked Mr. B, whom he met through a job-hunting matching app, “Can I help you with your assignment? After eating and drinking at a hotel in Tokyo, he took her to a room he had reserved and gave her “advice on materials. While posing as a reliable member of society, he allegedly mixed a sleeping drug with Ms. B’s drink in the guest room to render her unconscious, and then sexually assaulted her.

The accused also invited Ms. C, whom he had met through an app, to dinner under the guise of giving her advice on how to start her job-hunting activities, saying, “I used to work as a bartender, so I can make sweet cocktails.

“The accused made cocktails and drank alcohol at home, and made Ms. C consume a sleeping drug in her drink without her knowing. He then suddenly approached Ms. C and said, ‘I’m going to lose my memory after this, so let’s kiss. Immediately after that, Ms. C fell into a sound sleep. ……” (From the opening statement)

The “experiments” that led up to the crime

One experience led Maruta to have intercourse with a woman after drugging her with sleeping pills.

“I wanted to have sex with her. I wanted to have sex with her, take a video of it, and enjoy it later. ……” (Maruta’s statement)

Regarding the amount of drugs to be mixed in the drinks, Maruta said, “I was experimenting to get others to take the sleeping pills I had been prescribed. I knew the pharmacological effects and the duration of the effects to some extent before I used them,” he said in his statement. Mr. B and Ms. C first learned of the damage to themselves when they were contacted by the police after Maruta’s arrest last December.

“I can’t forgive her for having unilateral sex with me without considering my feelings. I don’t think it’s okay if you don’t know. After the police informed me of the damage, I gradually began to feel it, became afraid of the streets at night, and developed urticaria” (Ms. B’s statement).

“Students visit alumni with a feeling of clinging to them. “Students are visiting alumni with a feeling of clinging to them, and it is frustrating to have them take sleeping pills and have intercourse without their knowledge, as if they are being made fun of. What the hell do they think college students are? It’s painful to have a secret that I can’t tell my parents for the rest of my life. The accused who treats job hunters like toys is unforgivable and disgusting” (Ms. C’s statement)

Of the three, Ms. A was the only one who felt something wrong with her body after the attack. “When I woke up in the morning, I found myself sleeping in just my underwear. When I looked at my tongue, it was completely blue, and I had no memory of anything before that. I felt anxious and scared that it was drugs ……. I broke up with the defendant, talked to a friend, and then went to the police” (Mr. A’s statement), he recalled.

The investigation of evidence in cases against other women is scheduled to continue against Maruta. Furthermore, on September 7, it was reported that he had been arrested for the ninth time: in April 2017, he allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in her twenties, an office worker, by making her take a sleeping pill in Tokyo. This is the same modus operandi that was revealed in the first trial. How many cases did he commit? What will he say when he is questioned by the accused later?