Japanese Father Rapes 10-Year-Old Daughter, Jailed For 16 Years

A Japanese man was imprisoned for 16 years on Thursday for brutally raping and causing the death of his 10-year-old daughter.

The accused, identified as 42-year-old Yuichiro Kurihara, was convicted for the death of his 10-year-old daughter, identified as Mia. She was reportedly deprived of sleep and nutrition at their family home in Noda, Chiba Prefecture. The incident took place in January 2019.

He had physically abused Mia on multiple occasions. The man had reportedly forced the 10-year-old to stand in the bathroom under a cold water shower and raped her during the time period of Jan. 22 to Jan. 24. A video found on his cell phone shows Mia bent over and begging for help.

According to the prosecution details, the abuse had started in July 2017, right after Mia moved from her mother's hometown of Itoman, Okinawa Prefecture, to her father’s house. She was 8 years old at the time.

During the court trials held at Chiba District Court, Kurihara admitted to assaulting Mia but denied other charges against him. However, the court called his testimony “unreliable” and found him guilty on all charges of fatal child abuse on Thursday.

Kurihara was charged for causing Mia's death by depriving her of sleep and nutrition. He was also charged for physically abusing her from December 2018 to January 2019 and for beating his 33-year-old wife. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The man’s wife, identified as Nagisa, was also sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment in June 2019, which was suspended with probation for five years. She was found guilty of complicity in her husband’s actions toward their child.

During the ruling, the court, however, had stated that it was difficult for Nagisa to resist her husband’s actions due to his abusive nature and her mental condition.

Mia had written that she was being bullied by her father in a school questionnaire back in November 2017. She was subsequently taken into protective custody for seven weeks. When the local education board confronted Kurihara about the bullying, he had told them her claims were not true.

Mia returned home to her parents following an approval form a welfare center. However, no officials from the center or the school had visited her house following the incident to check on how she was doing.