A court in Osaka has sentenced a man to death for the murders of a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.

48-year-old Koji Yamada was accused of suffocating the children from the city of Neyagawa in August 2015.

Prosecutors demanded the death penalty at the lay judge trial.

At the Osaka District Court on Wednesday, presiding judge Ryuta Asaka dismissed the defense lawyers' claims that the boy died of a sudden illness.

He said it's unthinkable that a healthy, energetic boy would suddenly die.

The judge upheld testimony from doctors that the boy had been suffocated.

The judge also ruled that Yamada intended to kill the girl, because he continued strangling her for several minutes, despite knowing the risk that she could die.

The judge also determined that key points of Yamada's court testimony were lies and fabrications.

Yamada's lawyer appealed the ruling.

Source: ANNnewsCH