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A husband and wife pleaded guilty on Monday to starving to death their 1-year-old son.
During the opening session of their trial at the Saitama District Court, Kenshiro Yamabe and his wife Hitomi, both 25, pleaded guilty to starving their son Haruto in October last year at their apartment in Okegawa in Saitama Prefecture, Sankei Shimbun reported. They gave their son only milk when he cried, according to the indictment.
The court heard that the couple called 119 on Oct 9, 2017, after Haruto fell unconscious. He died later that night in hospital. He weighed just 3.8 kilograms, less than half the average weight for a child of his age, at the time of his death.
As there were no signs of physical abuse on the boy's body, doctors determined Haruto died as a result of being deprived of food over an extended period of time.
The couple have admitted that they frequently ignored Haruto while they played video games.
Haruto had two older brothers, then aged 4 and 3, but they had no health problems.
© Kyodo/Japan Today
18 Comments
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gogogo
I would like to play video games with their heads. These selfish scum do not deserve anything... This makes me soooo mad. RIP little one, your parents will be going to hell.
thepersoniamnow
Disillusioned
Do you think that foster homes are worse than murderous parents?
An orphange is worse than people who deliberately starve an infant till they literally drop dead.
Perspective!
Félix Lorenzo Martín Moro
Stupid couple in fact.
smithinjapan
This is Japan, so I don't expect a prison sentence, at least not for the mother. The dad may get 2 - 3 years and mom the same, suspended, so that "The other children not experience separation from a loving mother," and because the system here is so woefully inadequate that they wouldn't know what to do with the other kids. So, easier to let murdering mom stay out of prison to "take care" of the two surviving kids (for now). Mind you, she might have to play the games a lot more and harder without a partner.
Viktor Cernatinskij
So sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WilliB
Tragic because they have 2 kids already, so imprisoning them will help anybody.
Snickers
Wow 25 and 3 kids already. These 2 idiots needed a lot more life experience before starting a family.
I hope the other kids are far away from their "parents"
starpunk
yes! Prison for life and take the other kids away from them. No more video games for these 'parents' either!
Tokyo-Engr
This article is so sad. This is so awful and so unimaginable. Animals do not do this to their offspring.
HARRYO
What disgusting pieces of CRAP these people are, to starve your own Flesh & Blood while you play video games and feed yourself when your hungry.
Disillusioned
As much as a lengthy jail term does seem appropriate, by doing so would sentence the two other children to a life of fostering. In other countries it would/could mean a better life for them, but not necessarily in Japan. Fostering and adopting children is very unpopular in Japan and these kids would end up in a children's home, which would be prison for them too. I'm not saying this horrific crime should go unpunished, but any severe punishment is going to punish the other two kids as well.
Balakrishnan Gurumurti
do u cal them parents? if so what kind? i wonder how a mother could ignore her own son? very sorry to note these are whom you call parents
Luddite
Horrific.
Aly Rustom
Life in prison. I'm just shaking at this. This is just... I don't know what to say.
Chip Star
Tragic. Haruto experienced fear and agony that few can properly imagine. The world is a worse place because of this.
thepersoniamnow
Life in prison! Monsters
mb96768
"The couple have admitted that they frequently ignored Haruto while they played video games" PATHETIC! "Haruto had two older brothers, then aged 4 and 3" TRAGIC!