The Chiba District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 46-year-old former police inspector to 13 years in prison after he was convicted of raping two women.
Prosecutors had sought a 17-year sentence for Makoto Okada who pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, Kyodo News reported.
According to the verdict, Okada, who was assigned to the Chiba Prefectural Police’s Fourth Investigation Division, entered a woman’s home through an unlocked window on July 6, 2014. The woman later told police he threatened her with a kitchen knife, blindfolded her and said he would kill her, before raping her.
Okada was also charged over another rape case on July 23, 2017, when he entered a woman’s home through an unlocked window. He used the same method to sexually assault his victim, by showing her a knife and threatening to kill her.
Okada was arrested twice last year, in June and September, on suspicion of voyeurism by using his smartphone to film up women’s skirts at train station escalators.
Tests of DNA left on bed sheets at the rape victims' homes linked Okada to the incidents in 2014 and 2017 and he was indicted for rape in November.
© Japan Today
25 Comments
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sakurasuki
Truly to serve to protect.
KazukoHarmony
Only 13 years!?
He not only raped these women but he also brutally attacked them with a knife and threatened to kill them. He abused the public trust accorded police officers.
A longer sentence would have been more just.
Leo T
KazukoHarmonyToday 05:05 pm JST
Only 13 years!?
13 years is quite a bit for a crime like this
KazukoHarmony
@ Leo T
Really? And the guy below did not even have the rank and responsibility of a police officer.
—
Apr 25, 2018
*A court sentenced on Wednesday a 29-year-old former reporter for public broadcaster NHK to 21 years in prison for raping three women.*
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/04/25/national/crime-legal/former-nhk-reporter-sentenced-21-years-prison-series-rapes/
Leo T
That is as well an extremely high sentence.
These are sentences usually handed out for murder, not these crimes
purple_depressed_bacon
13 years for brutally raping 2 women and threatening them with a knife? That's it? The judge might as well tell the victims that their lives and trauma don't matter. Pathetic. The Japanese justice system fails again.
Fighto!
I just hope the inmates are all made aware on day 1 that this scum was a police officer.
He deserves complete castration - 13 years is far too lenient.
Keepyer Internetpoints
It is always difficult for me to understand how credible threats of death with weapon in hand somehow pale in the eye of the public to rape.
He not only raped them, he utterly terrorized them. At the very least those are equal crimes.
I see no reason why he should ever be released from prison until he finds himself in need of a mortician....if he is guilty.
But I see no special reason in the article to believe he is. What is the evidence??
Roy
You are confusing retributivism with vengeance. The obligation is not to do justice to the victim, but to the law.
kaimycahl
So the rapist got 6.5 for each women he raped
餓死鬼
What do you think the sentence should be for raping two women at knifepoint?
Brian Wheway
He should be made to pay for the counselling the ladies rightfully need to heal the mental and emotional scars he's created, rape not only affects the victims but also there families
Yrral
It not safe if you are a woman,where women are sexually violated on a daily basis on train, because of sociopathy Japanese pervert,
Leo T
餓死鬼Sep. 27 10:14 pm JST
13 years is quite a bit for a crime like this
What do you think the sentence should be for raping two women at knifepoint?
Well considering murder is 13-20 years
I think 5 is about right
Reginald Bok
Should have been given life.
Strangerland
Japan doesn't do relative sentencing.
indigo
the tip of the iceberg...
Aly Rustom
YUP!
I have to agree.
餓死鬼
I see. Would you have any words of advice for the two women who may be traumatized for a good long time after being raped while in fear for their lives, probably have trust issues with law enforcement officers, and also knowing their attacker would be out in five years? If someone did the same to you or someone you cared about, would you be okay with them getting five years?
girl_in_tokyo
Leo TToday 04:35 am JST
You keep saying this. The perpetrator has been committing sex crimes for over ten years, and likely has comitted many others that we just don't know about. Violent rapists don't change. They need to be put behind bars where they can't hurt women any longer. If I were the judge, he'd get a life sentence and die in prison. That's what he deserves.
Roy
With all due respect, girl_in_tokyo, we don't punish criminals for what we think they did.
The question of retributive proportionality is an eternal one, especially in such a case, simply because we cannot punish a rape "in kind" with a rape. But again, we punish not to avenge the victims, we punish acccording to a deontological conception of desert. We punish criminals according to what they deserve, not what the victims deserve.
opheliajadefeldt
I am surprised he got that much time, as he was a former police inspector. From the many cases like this I have read from all over the world, the police go to great lengths to cover up crimes from one of their own. Police officers abusing and raping and at times murdering, is not that uncommon. In my opinion ALL rapists and abusers should get a very minimum of 20yrs to life. These skum do not change and there is no medical treatment to treat it.
Leo T
girl in tokyo
and likely has comitted many others that we just don't know about.
nice assumption
girl_in_tokyo
RoyToday 09:49 am JST
Judges absolutely do take the damage done to the victim into consideration when handing down a sentence. They also consider whether the perpetrator regrets their action, and whether they think s/he is likely to offend again. They have plenty of leeway in determining the high or low end of the sentencing range. It's unfortunate this judge chose the low end.
girl_in_tokyo
Leo TToday 02:11 pm JST
A likely assumption.
So sorry you are offended at the idea of a serial rapist and sex offender getting a long prison sentence. You could always visit him in prison and bring him cookies.