Man appeals life sentence over murder of 7-year-old girl in Niigata

Dec 12, 2019 | News On Japan

Dec 12, 2019 (Japan Times) - A man appealed Wednesday against the life sentence he was handed earlier this month for the 2018 murder of a 7-year-old girl in the city of Niigata, his lawyer said.

The defense team for Haruka Kobayashi, 25, had requested 10 years in prison at most during a trial at the Niigata District Court, claiming that he had no intention of killing or molesting the girl, while suggesting the possibility of him being mentally ill at the time.

According to the ruling, Kobayashi intentionally hit the second-grader with his car while she was on her way home from school on May 7 last year in the city, molested her in his car and strangled her to death before abandoning her body on a railway track so it would appear that she had been hit and killed by a train.

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