TOKYO - A woman who left the body of her stillborn daughter in a coin locker has been handed a suspended sentence by the Osaka District Court.
The court found Narumi Taniguchi, 33, a former sex worker of no fixed-address, guilty of the abandonment of her stillborn daughter and sentenced her to two years' imprisonment, suspended for four years.
"The defendant had no resources and nobody to rely on, so hid in a car parked on the streets and gave birth into a tote bag. She noticed the baby showed no signs of life, so put the body in a coin locker and the crime was malicious as she paid an extension fee on the locker. The body had to be recovered by the locker management company and the decomposition of the body was an offense against the pious and religious feelings that should be shown toward the dead," the ruling said. "However, the defendant has shown remorse, moved into a welfare facility from where she can review her lifestyle environment and gained a job that can help rebuild her life."
Taniguchi had pleaded guilty to the charge against her, saying, "it took all I had to be able to survive by myself let alone try to bring up (a child)."
Taniguchi was charged with leaving her stillborn daughter's body in the coin locker near Juzo Station in Osaka's Yodogawa-ku in January.
Prosecutors had sought jail time for Taniguchi, saying that shoving the body in the locker without ever hugging the child showed a disdain for life.
But defense lawyers argued for leniency, pointing out that the defendant was remorseful and was now receiving government assistance toward becoming independent. The defense argued the likelihood of re-offending is low.
The presiding judge in the case urged Taniguchi to turn her life around, noting that she had gone through 12 unwanted pregnancies since leaving her Kagoshima Prefecture birthplace to live in Osaka and lived out of hotels paid for through sex work. She revealed during proceedings that some children had been handed over to childcare facilities and others had also been stillborn. She told the court that hospitals had taken care of the other stillborn children she had given birth to, but in this instance, she felt unable to seek help as the validity of her health insurance had expired.
