The trial for the indecent assault of a 6-year-old girl: “She grabbed my breast”… The sentence handed down and “the 51-year-old defendant’s argument.”
On June 25, Hajime Tanaka, 51, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison at the Tokyo District Court for indecently assaulting a 6-year-old girl on the stairs of an apartment complex.
Judge Chikako Murata stated as the reason for the verdict , “The victim girl A’s statement that ‘I was grabbed by her breasts from over her clothes’ is credible. The defendant’s statements, such as ‘I talked to her so that she would not suspect that I was trespassing without permission,’ are unnatural and unreasonable. （The defendant’ s statements, such as ‘ I talked to her so that she would not suspect an unauthorized intrusion,’ were unnatural and unreasonable.
While the verdict was being handed down, Tanaka was slumped over and looking down the entire time. When leaving the courtroom, he did not look at the face of Mr. A’s father, who was behind the prosecutor.
At his first trial on April 25 and second trial on May 30, Tanaka made various allegations and denied committing the crime. He flatly denied everything in his statement at the time of his arrest, saying that it was “not true. The following is an article that reported the contents of the first trial.
Don’t tell anyone, I promise.
On October 6, 2012, Tanaka was arrested by the Kamata Police Department of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department on suspicion of indecent assault and for touching the breasts of A-chan (then 6 years old) on July 28 at an apartment in an apartment complex in Ota Ward. On February 26, 2003, Tanaka was sentenced to three years in prison for indecent assault on February 26, 2003, for having indecently assaulted an 8-year-old child multiple times in 2002. He committed this crime about six and a half years after his release from prison,” said a reporter from the society section of a national newspaper.
The prosecutor read out the indictment, which revealed Tanaka’s criminal acts as follows.
Tanaka asked A-chan, who was waiting for the elevator to go to a friend’s house to play, where she was going, and got into the elevator with her. and invited her to the stairs leading down to the 10th floor, where he touched her breasts.
After the crime, Tanaka put his index finger to his mouth and said, “Don’t tell anyone, I promise,” and shook her hand and cut off her fingers before parting with her. After going downstairs to the first floor and changing into a T-shirt near a parked car, he fled the scene.
When asked to confirm his guilt or innocence, Tanaka denied that he had committed any indecent acts. During the questioning of the defendant, Tanaka began to talk about the day of the incident in response to questions from his defense counsel.
Was he afraid of being caught trespassing without permission?
“After I finished my business at my parents’ house, I drove by the apartment complex. It was a nice day, so I thought it would be beautiful to have a cup of coffee on the roof of the apartment building and look at the view below. I parked my car in the complex, bought a can of coffee, and entered the apartment without permission.”
Tanaka’s parents’ house is located near the complex, and he had some familiarity with the area. The apartment building had a security camera at the entrance, but it was not auto-locked.
A little girl (A-chan) was waiting alone in front of the elevator. I felt guilty that I had broken into the apartment without permission, so I scurried around and talked to her, saying things like, ‘It’s hot, where are you going?
After getting on the elevator, the girl pressed the button for the 11th floor, but I did not press the floor number button so that she would not know that I was going to the rooftop. I said to the girl, ‘We are on the same 11th floor, so I will go downstairs with you.
Tanaka gave up on going to the rooftop, got off the elevator, and headed straight for the stairs. When he turned around at the stairs, he saw the girl following him.
He held the girl by her left shoulder with his right palm, as if to say, ‘Don’t follow me. Then, to prevent the unauthorized entry from being discovered, I told her, ‘Don’t tell anyone I’m here. I told her, ‘I promise,’ and then I shook her hand and cut off her fingers, hoping to calm her down after I had startled her.
Then I went down to the first floor, hid my face so that my unauthorized entry would not be discovered, walked past the security camera, took off the T-shirt I was wearing because it was hot, got into my car, and went home.
The statement is not true.
However, A-chan’s statement differs from Tanaka’s testimony: during the police interview, A-chan stated that Tanaka told her to “come to the stairs” and touched her breasts there, using gestures and hand gestures. She also said that “Uncle [Tanaka] ran away when [A’s] friend came.
When asked by the defense attorney about the discrepancy between his statement and that of A, Tanaka replied, “He may have thought I was suspicious and followed me, or he may have misunderstood that I said, ‘I’m going to the stairs,’ and thought, ‘Follow me to the stairs. And as for the “friend,” I have no memory of anyone coming to me,” he denied.
In addition, Tanaka stated immediately after his arrest that he “wanted to see the pattern on the T-shirt the girl was wearing, so I grabbed the left breast area of her clothes,” which differs from his testimony that he “held the left shoulder area with my right palm. He claimed that this was because he had been arrested about two months after the incident and was in a state of panic, and that he had responded to the police interrogation with a vague memory until he turned silent on the advice of his defense counsel.
He said that he had an idea that he had touched the girl, so he quickly made a false excuse. I had an idea that I had touched the girl, so I quickly made a false excuse, which led to an untrue statement being made. I admitted everything to the police as they told me it must have been like this. It is clear from the security camera footage that my initial statement, ‘I went up the stairs to the 12th floor and took the elevator down to the first floor,’ was incorrect.
Tanaka completely denied committing the indecent act, saying that his memory became clearer after his defense attorney showed him the security camera footage and other information. Tanaka’s numerous acts, which he says were motivated by his fear of being discovered for “breaking and entering” into the apartment, make his behavior seem even more suspicious. …… I wonder to what extent his excuses reached those who were present at the trial, including A’s relatives. I wonder how well his defense reached those who were present at the trial, including A’s relatives.
In the second part of this article, we will introduce how the prosecutors pursued Tanaka’s irrational excuses and the “angry words” of the victim’s father who took the witness stand.
Interview and text： Ryo Nakahira
