The Matsuyama District Court in Ehime Prefecture has sentenced a 37-year-old woman to 11 years in prison over the fatal assault of a 17-year-old girl at her apartment Iyo, Ehime Prefecture, last August.
The court heard that the defendant, Megumi Kubota, and three boys then aged 16 to 18, including Kubota's son, were charged with beating Yuka Ono who was found dead on Aug 15, Sankei reported Tuesday. The four were also charged with illegally disposing of a body. Police discovered the body after receiving a call from an unidentified person in the apartment.
Marks on Ono's body confirmed that the cause of death was severe bodily trauma. An autopsy also revealed that someone had apparently jumped repeatedly on the girl's body.
Police said that Ono, who lived in Matsuyama, had run away from home on June 27 and had been reported missing by her parents on July 19. The court heard that Ono had run away from home many times before and that she had often stayed at Kubota’s place because she was acquainted with Kubota’s oldest daughter, had been living at the apartment.
In the early part of last year, Ono's parents asked child welfare officials to bring her back, but they said there was nothing they could do because Ono was staying with Kubota voluntarily.
Kubota lived with her four children but neighbors said that male and female friends of Kubota’s children were in and out of the apartment all the time.
Police said that neighbors had seen Ono being beaten outside Kubota’s apartment by boys on more than one occasion, and reported it to authorities. However, child welfare authorities said no one was home whenever they visited the apartment.
Police also said that Kubota had been questioned once before about possible abuse of her children.
In handing down his ruling, presiding judge Koichiro Hino said: "As the accused was the principal orchestrator of the assault, it is this court's belief that the other children were coerced into their participation in the assault. The accused treated the victim not as a fellow human being, but as a plaything, and assaulted her for amusement."
© Japan Today
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Steve Crichton
If it was her own child she would have received a much more lenient sentence if any and if it was an adult the sentence would have been much more severe. Thats the way it works here folks.
therougou
Says it all.
Americanhonor
Child welfare are in contradiction with the minor laws, until a teenager turns 20 they are firmly under the jurisdiction of the legal parents, welfare should have along with police help apprehended her on child custody laws and resettled her with her parents or placed her under protective services.
Japan has many agencys that are understaffed however many simply brush off work and do not really do much to enforce laws, because they can get away with an excuse.
two things need to happen, they need more staff and secondly they need to do tgeir jobs properly, you g lives are at risk.
Barrel Organ
**lostrune2May. 20, 2015 - 09:41AM JST
She deserved it**
You're saying she deserved to be killed????
Triumvere
What a colossal failure. Not possible to do anything for her or any of the other children that might have been victimized before hand, but now that she's dead... Well, four to jail (or at least juvie one would hope) and one to the morgue. What happens to the rest of them?
Tessa
I've just checked ... there were actually two movies released around the same time.
Jarrod Nason
I think they meant "An American Crime"
Tessa
This was indeed based on a horrifying true story, but the real girl in question died of her injuries in the end. Apart from that, the similarities in the two cases are eerie. Look up Sylvia Likens for more information.
smithinjapan
It's a start, but not enough. Usually parents like these get off with minimal sentences, if anything, because "the other children need their mother". I'm glad she's going away for 11, but again it should be at least 20. I hope the other kids are alright, though they need to get some serious help.
kyushubill
Another sentence that is light considering the torture and amount of time she inflicted upon the poor the girl before killing her. The "justice" system here really cares nothing about the victims and their families.
DaDude
"The Girl Next Door" Good movie but very depressing.
Yes, protect the "children" murderers but not the victims.
khulifi
They all deserve their fate ...
Badge213
Child Welfare said they couldn't do anything because she was staying there voluntarily? But she's 17, so not an adult yet to make that decision anyway.
Child Welfare said they showed up but no one answered? That's it.
Also why didn't the police check?
IparryU
"Police said that neighbors had seen Ono being beaten outside Kubota’s apartment by boys on more than one occasion, and reported it to authorities. However, child welfare authorities said no one was home whenever they visited the apartment."
I am beginning to think that the above is copy and pasted into every article where child welfare is involved... sort of like when any cop or gov official gropes a woman on the train was drunk.
Mirai Hayashi
only 11 years
Sabrage
Echoes of the Junko Furuta murder. And people from Ehime pride themselves on their prefecture as being a nice place to live. Which it is.
However, many violent crimes have occurred there recently.
lostrune2
She deserved it
Child services system failed them
nakanoguy01
it's easy for all of us to blame the agency, but we have no idea what child welfare services can or can't do. japan needs to change the law to give them more teeth.
Amidalism
Classic child welfare authorities. Why do we never hear about anyone trying to do something about their ridiculous incompetence? We hear the "we went but nobody was home" excuse so frequently that you would figure the victims families would start protests. How hard would it be to have a welfare official stay at the location until someone showed up, or at least post a police officer there? This poor girl's death is on their hands. I hope they have trouble sleeping at night.
Living Memory
"However, child welfare authorities said no one was home whenever they visited the apartment."
I am not advocating getting physical with anyone or making threats or anything of the sort, but this is why you have to do more than just make a report from a distance. You can admonish wrong doers, get names, offer assistance to the person being wronged, inform them they are being wronged (yes, remember this girl kept coming back). Even just getting close and standing there scowling can stop a beating and induce shame.
I will further inject that a runaway may have good reason for running away. But where can she go? Sadly, a decent person would be at terrible risk for taking her in. Thus dregs like this are the ones who do it. The authorities? They are useless, and here is a chunk of proof of why. Their first step would be to put her back in the place she ran from, and like I say, she may have run for good reason.
wontond
The judge missed the opportunity to criticize the child welfare service.
FizzBit
Reminds me of a movie I saw a few years back. True story, sometime in the 50s in the US. The parents were away on a traveling circus and had strangers watch their kids. The whole foster family, including the kids got involved in the torture. She was chained in the basement. She finally escaped.
Dennis Bauer
11 years is not enough should be at least 17 years.
Alistair Carnell
"However, child welfare authorities said no one was home whenever they visited the apartment."
So that was that then ? Can't something be done to change the 'jobsworth' shoganai mentality of the child welfare authorities?
Carolingium
So many questions... How on earth did they get to this point? Random boys, a mom and their children beating a 17 year old to death. There has to be a very sad, twisted story of extremes in here.