JAPAN: Slain girl's dad wants details of crime reported

Father tells media not to show restraint in covering sexual assault, murder of his daughter

Japan Times
Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Hiroshima --- The father of a 7-year-old girl who was slain in Hiroshima last November expressed anger Monday at the man charged with molesting and killing her and urged the media not to show restraint in reporting the nature of the crime so the public will better understand the truth.

"Sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl is equivalent to torture," Kenichi Kinoshita, 39, told reporters ahead of the ruling in the trial of Jose Manuel Torres Yake, 34, scheduled for July 4 by the Hiroshima District Court.

Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for Yake, a Peruvian who is also accused of entering Japan on a fake passport, for the murder of Airi Kinoshita. When police were trying to establish his identity with Peruvian authorities, they also learned Yake was linked to a molestation case there.

"The culprit effectively killed her twice (by sexually assaulting her). I believe he deserves the death penalty," Kinoshita said.

He said the media may report the details of the molestation to help prevent further sex crimes.

"It is all right that details of the sexual assault are reported if such reporting results in preventing sexual crimes," he said, adding the media do not have to withhold his daughter's name.

"Airi is not 'a Hiroshima first-grader.' She lived here. It is all right to use her name," he said.

Yake is accused of strangling the girl at an unspecified location in or near his apartment in Aki Ward, Hiroshima, on Nov. 22, putting her body in a cardboard box and leaving it in a nearby vacant lot.

Date Posted: 6/27/2006