[Tragic Verdict] The Judgment That Left the Victim’s Parents in Tears
The victim’s father spoke of his intense anger
“Since the incident, my daughter has been afraid to go outside and has not been able to regain her previous brightness. She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night crying. She quit her extracurricular activities, stopped wearing the girly clothes she loved, and cut her hair short.”
Victim A’s mother sobbed as she spoke on the witness stand.
The jury trial of Shingo Takahashi, 69, who is accused of breaking into a residence and sexually assaulting an elementary school student, was held at the Tokyo District Court on March 4, 2025, on the grounds that he had accused her of not apologizing for hitting him with her bicycle, took her into his garage, and sexually assaulted her.
On March 7, the second day of the trial, Ms. A’s parents gave a statement of their opinions prior to the closing arguments. First, Ms. A’s father described the shock he felt immediately after the incident.
“He could not accept the fact that his daughter had been the victim of a sexual assault, and he only hoped that there was some kind of mistake.
When the doctor explained to me during a detailed examination that there were pressure marks on her private parts, I was convinced that what I most did not want had been done, and I was so shocked that I could not move as if I had been rooted to the spot. And I am deeply indignant that the defendant denies having harmed my daughter.”
Furthermore, touching on the defendant Takahashi’s failure to turn himself in and his criminal history,
“Thanks to the hard work of the detectives, countless security cameras and other physical evidence were the decisive factor in the arrest and indictment of the defendant. Without this physical evidences, it is hard to imagine that the defendant would have been living in the same town without a care in the world. The fact that he deleted his daughter’s photo from his smartphone also shows his strong will to evade arrest.
I am sure those who have been victimized in the past must have suffered and are still suffering. My daughter has become the seventh victim of this crime that has been discovered, and I feel a rage that I can’t do anything about it.”
He concluded his statement by expressing his strong anger at the defendant, saying, “I hope you can imagine what I am going through.”
“I hope you can imagine. If the defendant were to move in close proximity to you, your loved ones, or your friends, you would feel very anxious and would not be able to go out as much as you do now.
As a citizen, I can only hope that the defendant, who shows no signs of remorse, will not be able to wander around any town again, and that he will be given the longest possible prison sentence.”
