Sexual Assault by Chief Public Prosecutor

Former top leader of a regional public prosecutors office was indicted with a charge of semi-forcible sexual intercourse on his subordinate female prosecutor. He pleaded guilty in his first hearing at the trial in Osaka District Court on October 25th. He revealed that he told the woman not to tell about his sexual assault on her, indicating damage on their organization, and tried to tame her by offering treats of dinners until statute of limitations would be invoked.

According to the indictment, a lawyer with Osaka Bar Association, former Chief of Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, Kentaro Kitagawa, raped a woman subordinate to him in his room of official residence for the office members after a drink party for his promotion to the chief in the evening of September 12, 2018. She was intoxicated with alcohol and he ignored her plea to stop assaulting when she regained consciousness.

 

In the first hearing of the trial, Kitagawa admitted his assault on her, saying “I apologize for my infliction of serious damage on her.” He also apologized to the organizations related to him, including the Public Prosecutors Office, for his wrong behavior.

 

According to the explanation about the case by public prosecutors who indicted him, Kitagawa told the woman that Osaka Public Prosecutors Office would stop its function, if his assault on her would be open to the public, citing an example in which the office faced major criticisms over fabrication of evidence about data of Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2010. The woman told in her press conference after the hearing that Kitagawa had “kidnapped” the organization to hush her up.

 

The public prosecutors also revealed that the woman had sent an email to Kitagawa, telling about her sentiment of hardship. She thought that she would not be able to accuse him, considering his professional capability and highness of his position. Kitagawa replied to her email, telling that he would treat her meals until his crime would reach statute of limitation in the future.

 

This case marks another example of crime in a law enforcement office. Public prosecutors are someone who investigate crimes and their behavior is supposed to be based on a sense of justice. Nevertheless, the chief prosecutor is suspicious to have raped his staff, told her that she became his woman afterward, and tried to coerce her to keep silent about the sexual assault. That man supervised a public prosecutors’ organization.

 

Although the woman suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, she decided to accuse him for other victims of sexual assault, who cannot tell about the suffering. “I want to tell someone who cannot tell about her situation that ‘You are not wrong’ and recommend to tell about it to someone who can trust,” said the woman in her press conference. The woman also sued a female deputy public prosecutor who spread rumor that indictment against Kitagawa was false.

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