crime

Man charged with girlfriend’s murder claims she ‘consented to be killed’

23 Comments

A 57-year-old man, charged with killing his 47-year-old girlfriend and dumping her body on a road in Shin-Kiba in Tokyo’s Koto Ward in 2017, told the Tokyo District Court on Monday that the woman wanted to die.

At the opening session of his trial, Kazumi Ueda, a former Ota Ward official, admitted to strangling Tomoko Ota with a necktie in his car on the night of Oct 31, 2017, and then leaving her body on the road, Fuji TV reported.

Ueda said he first thought of taking the body to Chiba Prefecture but drove around for four hours looking for an isolated spot before pushing Ota's body out of the car in Shin-Kiba. Her body was found at around 2:30 a.m. on Nov 1. She was fully clothed but had no personal belongings or ID on her.

Ueda surfaced as a suspect after surveillance camera footage showed his white car in the area where the body was found.

Prosecutors claimed that Ueda, who is married, had been having an affair with Ota and that he killed her after she told him she wanted to end their relationship because she was seeing another man.

However, in his statement on Monday, Ueda said: “I killed her but she agreed to be killed.”

Ueda’s lawyer argued that Ueda’s case is, in fact, “consensual homicide” because the victim said she wanted to die and did not resist as the defendant strangled her.

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23 Comments
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Hopefully the court is not as stupid as this guy.

19 ( +19 / -0 )

Consent is not a defense to a killing. He just admitted intent, which means he's guilty of murder.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

BS, the girl was either leaving him or was going to expose the affair. He killed her for those reasons.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Your first thought is, 'Will anyone be so thick as to believe this murderer's lies?', and then your second thought is, 'Yes, probably. He'll likely away with just a telling off'.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Ueda’s lawyer argued that Ueda’s case is, in fact, “consensual homicide” because the victim said she wanted to die and did not resist as the defendant strangled her.

I wonder if consensual homicide has a legal definition in Japan. I could believe something may exist, coming from the history of having a second samurai chop one's head off, after one cuts their stomach in seppuku. At some point they may have wanted to discourage that, thereby creating a law to make it illegal, while potentially giving it a lesser punishment in recognition that the act is performed as a service to end one's suffering.

This is all entirely speculation, but the wording, and specific quotation of the term "consensual homicide" gave me the above thoughts.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

If this is true, then why would you destroy your future by killing her. Concur with Yubaru.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I'd need to see a video showing her begging to be killed before I believed it.

I am in favor of assisted suicide for those with terminal medical conditions.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I wonder if consensual homicide has a legal definition in Japan

Given that Japan has a well developed penal code (motive I am not saying the justice system is just), I would hazard a bet that it does.

This was an interesting read:

https://www.revolvy.com/page/Consensual-homicide

1 ( +2 / -1 )

theFu, if you would kill someone just because the person begged you to do so, would you give the person all you have if is begged too ? No one is more fool than theFu.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

This loser's defense is very difficult to disprove although, the fact that she was in a relationship with another man and wanted to break up with this loser points to his defense being a load of bovine excrement. Furthermore, perhaps she did want to die (we will never know), but I'm quite sure she didn't want her body dumped on the side of the road like a bag of trash.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Just when you think you have heard everything.

Wow.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

First of all, that is just a terrible defence, lets add it to the list of terrible excuses. Even if that was the case it's still murder.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

However, in his statement on Monday, Ueda said: “I killed her but she agreed to be killed.”

> Ueda’s lawyer argued that Ueda’s case is, in fact, “consensual homicide” because the victim said she wanted to die and did not resist as the defendant strangled her.

Good ol Japan. Just when you think you've heard it all, something in the news makes you shake your head and go WTF????

0 ( +0 / -0 )

ArtistAtLarge

sorry. I just realized after posting that you said the exact same thing. Sorry again

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“I killed her but she agreed to be killed.”

So this is the killer's version of, "she was asking for it"??

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Problem is - if it WERE true, you should at least get her to state it on video. I mean, I'm not going to do it in the first place, but at least get evidence if you are going to!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ueda’s lawyer argued that Ueda’s case is, in fact, “consensual homicide” because the victim said she wanted to die and did not resist as the defendant strangled her.

Man, must be tough being able to going to bed every night and looking at themselves in the mirror for lawyers.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It’s still murder, dude. Japan does not recognize assisted suicide, and even terminating life support must go through several levels of bureaucracy.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What is wrong with these idiots and their increasingly weird excuses for killing someone? An argument over washing dishes, bored, wanted to see what it was like... and now 'she wanted to die'... sick and twisted.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So this is the killer's version of, "she was asking for it"?

Question is: what if she actually DID ask for it!?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Interesting case.

Let's imagine that she was Suicidal, but couldn't do it herself for whatever reason, so asked him to Kill her.

Could we draw some parallels to the legalised assisted suicide in other Countries ?

I would imagine, assuming neither were "drunk" - the usual get of our jail clause often quoted here....

then there'd be a need to prove that she consented, and if indeed whether it mattered or not legally based on prior cases...

I think a proper Lawyer practising in Japan will need to give pointers here, but that's unlikely to happen, as none would have time to waste here.... so Game on.... what's the rest of the Arm Chair Lawyers think about this one ?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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