Dec 06 (Japan Times) - The Niigata District Court on Wednesday sentenced a 25-year-old man to life in prison for the sexual assault and murder of a 7-year-old schoolgirl last year.
According to the ruling, Haruka 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 of Niigata, molested her in his car and then 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.
The court noted the crime “indiscriminately targeted a vulnerable person†and described it as “vicious.â€
Presiding Judge Takeshi Yamazaki said Kobayashi did not intend to kill the girl initially, but he was “aware that (strangling her) carried a high risk of killing her.â€
Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, maintaining the accused had “made light of (the girl’s) life.â€
Source: ANNnewsCH
