A 35-year-old woman on Wednesday was sentenced to 11 years in prison for killing her 5-year-old son by throwing him from a window in their 13th-floor apartment in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward in December 2014.
The sentence was handed down by the Tokyo District Court against Ai Kato who had pleaded not guilty.
Kato had testified that she left the window open in the bedroom where her son Koki Takahashi was and then had gone to the toilet, Sankei Shimbun reported. When she returned, the boy's body was lying on the ground below at around 11:15 p.m. on Dec 29, 2014.
The boy's father looked for his son when he got home and became concerned. A passerby saw the child's body on the ground and called 110.
The presiding judge said it was not plausible to believe that Koki unlocked and opened the window and then fell out by accident, Sankei reported.
The court heard that Koki's father had consulted police a week earlier about an incident on Dec 23 when his wife tried to strangle the boy with a cord while at a hotel.
Prosecutors said that Kato initially told police she did not have confidence in her ability to raise a child and that she just wanted to live alone with her husband.
The court also heard that Kato had been shoplifting because she was stressed and that her husband had told her he would divorce her if she ever shoplifted again.
© Japan Today
23 Comments
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nath
Prayers for the family! May the child rest in peace! I hope she gets help!
clueless
The presiding judge said it was not plausible to believe that Koki unlocked and opened the window and then fell out by accident.
Why not? 5 year olds are capable of getting into all sorts of mischief.
Not the safest of convictions then is it?
Disillusioned
Clueless indeed! The kid may have opened the window, but why didn't the mother find the body after going to the toilet? She is a monster and got what she deserved. However, it remains to be seen why she felt so badly about raiding her child.
Giveme_abreak
****SERIOUSLY JUST 11 YEARS??? I mean she could have planned it and it's been on her mind how to get rid of that poor child! The accident happened 11:15pm, that boy should be tucked in to bed and DUHH it's winter time that window should be closed!
nath
Anyone who predicted she wouldn't get any punishment, or only a year or two, want to speak as to their predictions now? I'll go and pull out some of your quotes later.
Matthew Harding
I haven't made any predictions yet, but judging from previous cases of murder by mom I'm going to estimate 4-5 years in jail for the crime. For some reason killing your own kid gets you less time in this country.
nath
Maybe try reading the story. Or just the headline even.
Aly Rustom
I agree. Murder should be a life sentence. The murder of a child, much less YOUR own, should get AT LEAST that.
sensei258
What is wrong with Japan's "justice" system?
Aly Rustom
Everything
clueless
Disillusioned indeed!
This mother was imprisoned on nothing more than the judges assumption.
And you are OK with that?
Giveme_abreak
And you are OK with that?
It was not an assumption, I believe they have evidence that her 5 yr old son could not throw himself out (window's too high etc) and have you read that Kato admits she was the one who left the opened window? which by the way seems so odd that you would leave the window open around that time (11pm) which also happened to be winter.
TheGodfather
RIP Koki-kun!! :-(
smithinjapan
Good! FINALLY one of these women is getting what they deserve instead of loads of pity and nothing by way of jail time. This is also the fault of the ever-failing social welfare system, which should have taken the child away after the first time the father went to the police.
This murderer gets what she deserves. 11 years is still not enough, but it's a start. I hope there's a picture of her little boy kept in the cell.
DarkKnghtZ
Case in point why the death sentence should be an option. Any person who would kill their own child, after multiple attempts, shoplift, and have enough problems where her husband would threaten divorce for another incident doesn't need to be in society.
Kittychosen
Nothing wrong with an open window in December at night - it's called fresh air.
Maybe it's more important to ask why a 5 year-old child was awake at that time of night.
clueless
@kitty
Well said!
As a child my mother always left our bedroom windows open for exactly that reason. I still do to this day.
We all know on here that once a case is brought before a judge in Japan then it's "sayonara baby"
And we all know that it's not always the guilty who get sent down.
I just don't think there is enough evidence here to secure a conviction. (based on what I have read…true)
But for sure the mother needs help.
Too many Perry Mason's on here sometimes.
Bartholomew Harte
Tie them tubes up & she won't get another chance at murdering another child.
smithinjapan
clueless: "I just don't think there is enough evidence here to secure a conviction."
Nah, none at all! She certainly never tried killing the child before... oh wait. She did! She's not known to have broken the laws before.... oops! did that, too. She wasn't threatened with divorce if she did not change her behaviour, it was just that bad! oh wait... that also happened. But you're right, it's just as likely the kid suddenly up and jumped out the window, and the mother just didn't do a thing about it until the husband came home and found him.
"And we all know that it's not always the guilty who get sent down."
And we all know this time it is the guilty being sent down; just not for long enough, although it's better than some.
TheReds
you kidding me? only 11 years? should be for life.
EyeOfTheCat
Was there any DNA testing of the window to find out who opened it? Because otherwise, looks like everything in this case is assumption.
clueless
@smith
…and you know how she is soooo guilty?
Access to court documents that we others don't have?
Friends with her brief are you?
Or were you the court sketch artist and you sat through the whole thing?
None of the above matey. You know what you know because of what the media has decided to tell you.
I've heard you spout off before that you can't trust all the media says and yet here you are???
We answer me this then…
Exactly what evidence you have read about make her so guilty of murder?
….and being a shoplifter counts for nowt!!
clueless
Koki was 5.
A 5 year old can open a window and much more.
If he jailed her purely on this assumption then he needs to find other employment as he is clearly ill-informed.