Man Torches College Student

[bloodrayne]

Man gets life for torching college student alive




NUMAZU, Shizuoka -- A jobless man charged with burning a junior college student to death in Shizuoka Prefecture in 2002 was ordered Thursday to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The Numazu branch of the Shizuoka District Court convicted Junya Hattori, 31, of illegally confining and murdering the victim.

"The defendant confined the nonresistant victim and torched her to conceal her identity. It was a serious crime in that he ignored the dignity of the victim. There is no room for leniency," Presiding Judge Sachiko Takahashi said as she handed down the ruling.

"The defendant hesitated to carry out the crime and subsequently apologized to the bereaved family of his victim," the judge said as to the reason why she chose to sentence him to life imprisonment rather than death. Prosecutors had demanded that Hattori be hanged.

Hattori forced a 19-year-old junior college student into his car at a parking lot in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture, late on the night of Jan. 22, 2002, and confined her in his vehicle for three hours, according to the ruling.

In the predawn hours of the following day, Hattori torched the student alive after pouring kerosene on her body, the court found. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Jan. 15, 2004)