Photo/Illutration People line up in front of the Chiba District Court on March 19 for a lottery to attend the verdict in the trial of Yuichiro Kurihara, who was charged with fatally abusing his 10-year-old daughter, Mia. (Mizuki Sato)

CHIBA--A man was sentenced to 16 years in prison on March 19 for repeatedly abusing his 10-year-old daughter and causing her death in January 2019.

Yuichiro Kurihara, 42, received the sentence from Presiding Judge Iwao Maeda of the Chiba District Court at the conclusion of the lay judge trial. 

Maeda declared Kurihara guilty of all six charges involving his daughter, Mia.

Kurihara’s cruelty to the girl was “an inordinate level of grisly and insidious abuse,” Maeda said while delivering the verdict.

The judge also emphasized that Kurihara “abused Mia repeatedly and for a long time” and his actions resulted in her death.

Kurihara’s statements made during the trial were “incoherent, unnatural and irrational,” he said.

“He showed no sign of remorse at all,” Maeda said, criticizing the defendant.

Prosecutors had demanded an 18-year prison sentence. However, even a 16-year prison term is unprecedented for a child abuse case.

“Compared with previous cases, this case was extremely malicious and belongs to the gravest category,” Maeda said of the unusually harsh sentence. 

Kurihara was indicted on six charges including bodily injury resulting in the death of Mia, who was found dead in the bathroom at their home in Noda, Chiba Prefecture.

Kurihara pleaded innocent to the charge that he assaulted his daughter in November 2017.

His defense lawyers also denied many of the accusations including assault. The prosecutors and defense argued over if Kurihara abused Mia on a daily basis and the cause of her death.

Prosecutors claimed that Kurihara ordered his wife not to feed Mia and forced the girl to remain standing for many hours from Jan. 22 to 24 last year at their home.

Mia was deprived of sufficient sleep, and Kurihara was also accused of repeatedly pouring cold water over the girl and assaulting her. His actions caused Mia's death, prosecutors said.

Based on testimony from Kurihara’s family members and others, prosecutors said Kurihara started abusing Mia from around July 2017, when the family moved to Noda.

What Kurihara did was “grisly and atrocious” and could not be described simply by the term ‘abuse,’” prosecutors said in their closing arguments.

They said Kurihara “abused Mia repeatedly and routinely in such an insidious and savage way for a long time.”

“The defendant shows no sign of remorse; thus, he is still abusing Mia,” prosecutors said as they asked for the lengthy prison term.

Defense lawyers, on the other hand, said Kurihara “never ordered (his wife) not to feed Mia.”

“His daughter repeatedly flapped her arms and legs. So Kurihara threw cold water on her for about three seconds two to three times just to calm her down,” the defense said.

They also claimed Kurihara never assaulted Mia, including kicking and hitting her.

“Because his daughter behaved violently, Kurihara held her down on the floor and pulled her hair,” they said. “He kept her standing because Mia said she wanted to do so.”

“It was excessive parental discipline resulting in abuse,” the defense lawyers said in their closing arguments.

Mia’s mother was convicted of aiding and abetting her husband, Kurihara, in the abuse. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, suspended for five years with probation. The court recognized she was a victim of domestic abuse by Kurihara.

To attend the verdict of the much-publicized case on March 19, 436 people lined up in front of the court seeking to gain a seat in the gallery through a lottery.

To minimize the risk of the novel coronavirus spread, spectators were asked to sit about one meter apart. The arrangement reduced the courtroom audience capacity to one-third of the usual available seats. The chances of winning a seat in the gallery was one in 21.

(This article was written by Susumu Imaizumi and Erika Matsumoto.)

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