Source:
https://scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2136819/man-who-held-japanese-teen-girl-captive-two-years-experiment
Asia/ East Asia

Man who held Japanese teen girl captive two years as ‘experiment’ is jailed for nine years

Court ruling was originally expected to be handed down last August but was postponed after Kabu Terauchi identified himself as ‘a fairy from the forest’ and made strange noises in court

Court ruling was originally expected to be handed down last August but was postponed after Kabu Terauchi identified himself as ‘a fairy from the forest’ and made strange noises in court

A Japanese court on Monday sentenced a man to nine years in prison for abducting a teenage girl and holding her captive for two years.

The Saitama District Court determined that Kabu Terauchi, 25, was fully competent to be held criminally liable, turning down claims made by defence lawyers that he was not able to take full responsibility as he suffered from schizophrenia.

Prosecutors had demanded a 15-year prison term for Terauchi, saying although the accused showed symptoms of autism he was competent to be held criminally liable. The defendant had admitted most of his charges.

The court also recognised that Ana Saito was held captive for two years, dismissing the defendant’s claim that he did not think the period of “monitoring” her in confinement lasted that long.

But the judge handed down a prison term shorter than sought by the prosecutors, saying “the physical confinement was moderate” as Terauchi left a window unlocked or went on a trip, leaving the girl at home.

“The victim’s account suggested that there was no physical violence or verbal abuse (during the confinement) and the prison term sought by the prosecutors is too severe,” Judge Satomi Matsubara said.

The ruling was originally expected to be handed down last August but was postponed after Terauchi identified himself as “a fairy from the forest” and made strange noises in court.

According to the ruling, Terauchi abducted Saito, then a junior high school student, in a car as she was on her way home from school in Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, on March 10, 2014.

Terauchi, a Chiba University student, held her captive first at his flat in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and later in another flat in the capital’s Nakano Ward until March 2016, causing Saito, now 17, to develop severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

On March 27, 2016, Saito managed to escape from Terauchi’s flat when she found the door unlocked and made an emergency call to police from a public phone.

The accused was found in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan the following day after an apparent suicide attempt by slashing his throat with a box cutter. He was arrested after being discharged from hospital.

At the first hearing of his trial in September 2016, Terauchi admitted to kidnapping the girl, but claimed that he only prevented her from fleeing for the first several weeks as he later went out while leaving her at home on her own.

In a subsequent hearing following his psychiatric evaluation, Terauchi maintained that he committed the crime following “instructions sent to my brain”.

During the trial Terauchi said he was “very sorry” for the victim but when asked about why he was calling Saito an “examination subject”, he said he considered the crime to be an experiment in which he felt he treated the girl as an animal, not as a human being.

Saito still suffers from flashbacks while trying to readjust to society, according to her mother. In a hearing last July, the mother said she wanted Terauchi “to stay in jail for a lifetime.”