Society

Mother sentenced to 9 years in jail in child starvation case

Nov 21 (Kyodo) - A Japanese court sentenced a 22-year-old woman to nine years in prison on Friday for starving her 2-year-old daughter to death last year in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido.

The Sapporo District Court found Rina Ikeda did not give her daughter Kotori, who was assaulted and injured by her boyfriend, access to medical treatment or sufficiently feed her between late May and early June last year, leading to the girl's death.

Presiding Judge Toshikazu Ishida criticized the defendant's act as "extremely irresponsible and malicious" as she went out for hours and left her daughter alone without feeding her.

The boyfriend, Kazuya Fujiwara, 26, was sentenced last month by the same court to 13 years in jail for child abuse, but has appealed the ruling.

Prosecutors had sought a 14-year term for Ikeda. But her defense team said Kotori died because she choked on her own vomit, rather than as a result of being starving to death.

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