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A 31-year-old woman in Niigata Prefecture will stand trial after she was indicted for killing her 3-month-old daughter by dropping her three times on the floor from stairs at their home in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, in June.
Noriko Ito, a Nagaoka city official in charge of promoting gender equality, was arrested on June 12 on suspicion of killing her daughter Hikari who died in hospital from a brain contusion, Kyodo News reported.
After her arrest, Ito underwent a psychiatric evaluation from June 25 until Aug 30 to determine if she was mentally competent to stand trial. On Friday, prosecutors decided to indict her based on the results of the evaluation.
According to local media reports, people close to Ito said she appeared distressed over child-rearing. Married to a fellow Nagaoka city official, Ito also has a son and was on childcare leave from April.
Ito was home alone with her daughter at the time of the incident on June 12. The baby's grandmother called an ambulance after finding her bleeding on the floor when she visited their home.
Ito accompanied Hikari when she was taken to hospital and appeared panic stricken, according to police and medical staff.
© Japan Today/Kyodo
8 Comments
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miss_oikawa
Almost in tears. RIP little girl.
sensei258
Wanna bet she finds an 'understanding' judge and walks away with a suspended sentence? Kill your baby, cry in front of the judge, walk away free.
baillady
Affecting 1-2 out of every 1000 women, postpartum psychosis can be sudden onset and endanger the life of the child. This condition was first recorded around 2000 years ago
I’m sorry for not not only the baby that died but the untreated mother as well.
Do the hustle
I can accept there was some influence of postpartum depression. However, I’m quite sure this woman’s mental problems started long before she became pregnant.
Jonathan Prin
Post partum is not about finding a way to make suffer your baby like throwing it in the stairs 3 times !
That woman had even maybe skills to assess her own situation as a gender equality official.
So scary situation about children in Japan with lots of article about molestation, dzaths by lack of prevention or monitoring and killings by parents.
What are the authorities doing ?
Chip Star
Tragic.
gaijinpapa
"Affecting 1-2 out of every 1000 women, postpartum psychosis can be sudden onset and endanger the life of the child. This condition was first recorded around 2000 years ago
I’m sorry for not not only the baby that died but the untreated mother as well."
I don't feel sorry for the mother at all. She did a terrible thing. Women hurt and kill babies and children of older ages. Some men do too.
There is no proof that some illness FORCED this woman to kill her child.
So much for gender equality. If you really think that it is ONLY mothers that get some mental illness that causes them to kill babies, then don't demand equality.
doel jusino
Is this KILL YOUR CHILD SEASON in Japan ???? Their is about four stories going around now about a parent killing their child. WTF is wrong with society now a days ???? I guess being a child is an endangered species in Japan now a days..... STOP KILLING YOUR CHILDREN.