Otaku Murderer Death Sentence Upheld

Death Sentence Upheld in Tokyo for Man Responsible for Otakus Bad Name

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The Japanese supreme court today upheld an earlier ruling that sentenced Tsutomu Miyazaki to death for the abduction and murder of four girls in 1988 and 1989.

The girls were between the ages of 4 and 7 when they were killed, Miyazaki was 26 at the time of the first murder. After each murder he sent remnants, pictures and postcards to the families of his victims. Miyazaki is said to have been motivated by a sexual fetish and a desire to own a collection of videotape recordings of corpses.

He was arrested after an unrelated sexual assault on a young girl. After his arrest, over six thousand pornographic anime were found in his house and Miyazaki, who was an otaku, became known as the Otaku Murderer.

After a 7-year trial Miyazaki was sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court in 1997, a ruling that was later upheld by the Tokyo High Court in 2001 and by the Supreme Court today. In each trial, the defence argued that Miyazaki was mentally ill. Japanese law allows for the sentences of mentally ill criminals to be reduced. Psychiatric evaluations of Miyazaki found that he had multiple personality disorder and was schizophrenic. One evaluation by Tokyo University psychiatrists found that he had a "personality disorder" but was aware of the gravity of his crimes, while another evaluation found that he had a "mental disorder." The court accepted the first evaluation.

Thanks to Sethimothy for this item.