Court Reveals Horrific Acts of Man Who Threatened and Assaulted Five Children

Charged with sexual assault of five elementary school girls

“There is no mistake in any of this. I am truly sorry.”

The man who sexually assaulted five girls who were elementary school students at the time and even filmed some of the crimes admitted to his crimes at the start of his first trial. However, he did not discuss the details of the crimes during the trial.

“On October 19, 2012, the Chiba Prefectural Police arrested Tomono Masaru (33), a delivery worker from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse resulting in injury, for allegedly taking elementary school student A to a vacant lot in Chiba Prefecture and sexually assaulting her, resulting in injuries. A’s mother called 110 to report that her daughter had been groped by a young man, and Tomono emerged from an investigation that included an analysis of security camera footage. Tomono has admitted to the charges, saying, ‘The allegations are generally accurate.’

Subsequently, analysis of the smartphone seized from Tomono revealed that he had also sexually assaulted another girl. On November 20th, Chiba Prefectural Police rearrested Tomono on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse, etc., for allegedly taking elementary school student B onto the apartment grounds and sexually assaulting her.” (National newspaper social affairs reporter)

On October 14, the verdict in Katsu Tomono’s jury trial was delivered at the Chiba District Court.

Tomono was charged with four offences: sexual intercourse without consent resulting in injury to five girls aged between 7 and 11 at the time of the incident, sexual intercourse without consent, filming them in sexual poses, and violating the Child Pornography Prohibition Act. He was also charged with filming two women believed to be adults in sexual poses.

At the first hearing on October 2nd, the prosecutor’s reading of the indictment and opening statement revealed the extremely horrific crimes committed by the defendant Tomono.

“The defendant had been stressed out by the woman he lived with about a voyeurism incident he had committed in 2019, and in order to release that stress, he decided to sexually assault an elementary school girl. He then wandered around Chiba Prefecture looking for the girl on her way home from school, and committed the crimes in question.”

Three girls were targeted within the span of about an hour

“In mid-April 2012, the defendant lured Ms. B into the apartment complex on her way home from school and sexually assaulted her, recording the assault on video on her smartphone. After the crime, the defendant tried to silence Ms. B by telling her, ‘If you tell your mother or father, I’ll kill you.’

Ms. B has not told her parents about the incident up until now, and with the cooperation of her parents, we were able to identify the defendant’s crimes from a video found on the defendant’s smartphone.”

“In late September 2012, the defendant lied to A, who was on her way home from school, saying, ‘There is an injured girl in the back,’ and lured her into the grounds of an empty house. He sexually assaulted her, telling her, ‘If you cry, I’ll kill you,’ and filmed the assault. During the assault, he injured A.

A reported the incident to her parents on the same day, who then contacted the police, which led to the launch of an investigation.”

At the very same time that an investigation was being launched following a report from Ms. A’s parents, the defendant Tomono also engaged in voyeurism.

“On September 28th and October 3rd, 2012, the defendant inserted his smartphone under the skirts of women who appeared to be adults and secretly photographed their underwear inside train stations and on the street.”

Tomono’s crimes did not stop there. Just before his arrest on October 19, he had sexually assaulted three girls in just one hour.

“In mid-October 2012, the defendant lured Ms. C into the apartment complex on her way home from school, threatened her with ‘I’ll kill you,’ and sexually assaulted her, but fled when Ms. C wouldn’t stop crying.

Approximately 10 minutes later, the suspect lured D, who was on her way home from school, into the parking lot, threatened her, and sexually assaulted her, but fled when D hit the security alarm.

Approximately 30 minutes later, he lured E, who was on her way home from school, into the apartment complex, sexually assaulted her, and videotaped the incident. E has not told her parents about the incident, and with the cooperation of E’s parents, the defendant was able to identify the crime from the video stored on his smartphone.”

The prosecutor said at the end of his opening statement:

“The defendant was arrested on October 19, 2012 in connection with the case involving Mr. A, and was subsequently arrested and indicted in the cases involving Mr. B, Mr. C, Mr. D, and Mr. E. After his arrest in connection with Mr. B’s case, the defendant refused to be questioned and did not cooperate with the investigation.”

The defendant said nothing about the incident

The defense attorney then began his opening statement by saying, “This is a tragic case,” and added, “During this trial, Mr. Tomono has been asked not to speak about the case or anything else.” He then went on to explain to the jurors:

“Mr. Tomono is not to answer any questions, not to discuss his feelings, not to make any excuses. The mere fact that Mr. Tomono has remained silent cannot of course make the sentence any lighter or heavier.”

As mentioned above, the defendant Tomono refused to be questioned and did not cooperate with the investigation, and at the trial, he refused to say anything other than admitting to the charges at the beginning. In addition, the defense attorney made the following request regarding the videotape showing the crime scene that the prosecutor submitted as evidence:

“This evidence shows the scene of the crime, and of course the girl is in it. If in the future the girl finds out that this video of her has been seen by others in court, it will cause her irreparable damage. Taking such damage into consideration, the defense attorney believes that the video should not be used as evidence.”

The jurors were shown still images captured from a video of the crime, with the prosecutor placing a black mask over the victim’s eyes and blurring out Tomono’s genitals, as well as a transcript of what Tomono said and the circumstances of the video.

Before the jurors watched the video, the prosecutor added:

“The prosecutor requested that the defendant’s audio and still images from the video be used as evidence, but due to opposition from the defense, these were not accepted as evidence. Depending on the transcript, it may be difficult to convey the true nature of this case, and there is a risk that people may interpret it differently, so even at this point, we would like you to directly check the video and audio.

The content may be shocking to the jurors, but it is necessary evidence to at least give you an understanding of the details of this case.”

The images vividly showed the girl crying as she was sexually assaulted, and were reportedly difficult to look at. Some jurors grimaced or looked away for a moment.

And as his lawyer had said, although there were times when Tomono apologized to the victim, he never spoke about the incident throughout the trial. The prosecutor called the crime “despicable and vicious” and sought a 28-year prison sentence. His lawyer argued that “14 years in prison would be appropriate.”

Although Tomono admitted to the serious crime of terrorizing and deeply traumatizing the five girls and has offered words of apology, he has never spoken about the incident in his own words. How will the jurors sentence him?

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