Man arrested for sexually assaulting university student in Kanagawa

Police in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, have arrested a 25-year-old man on suspicion of sexually assaulting and robbing a 19-year-old university student in her apartment last Month.

According to police, the suspect, Yuta Matsuo, a company employee, has admitted to the charge and also said he had “done the same thing” to several other women in the past few years, Sankei Shimbun reported.

Police said that early on the morning of March 11, the victim left her apartment briefly to take out the garbage, leaving the door unlocked. When she returned a few minutes later and went into the bathroom, she saw a man wearing a bandana come out. She said he told her he would kill her if she touched the bandana.

The intruder then sexually assaulted her, took her cell phone and said if she wanted it back, she should go to the convenience store and withdraw 50,000 yen in cash from an ATM. He went with her and stood outside while she went into the store and withdrew the money. He then fled and the victim called 110.

Police said they identified Masuo from surveillance camera footage outside the apartment and also from DNA left at the scene of the sexual assault.

Police are questioning him about his involvement in several other sexual assaults of women in their late teens and early 20s in the same area over the past seven years.

© Japan Today