Photo/Illutration “It was very hard for me because I was treated like a perpetrator even though I spoke up about being sexually abused,” the plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit says at a news conference in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Sept. 21. (Maki Okubo)

A woman who was recognized by a court as having been sexually abused by a chaplain sued three pastors and two Christian newspapers for implying that she lied about her ordeal.

She filed the defamation lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court on Sept. 21, seeking 3.3 million yen ($22,300) in damages and the removal of newspaper articles.

According to the lawsuit, the woman reported to police that she had been sexually abused in 2017 by the chaplain, who provides mental care at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.

She was undergoing treatment there for an intractable disease.

The chaplain’s case was sent to prosecutors on suspicion of forcible indecency in September 2018. However, prosecutors decided not to indict him in December 2018.

In a civil lawsuit filed by the woman, the Tokyo District Court ruled in 2022 that the chaplain’s actions constituted sexual abuse and ordered him and the hospital to pay 1.1 million yen in compensation to the woman.

The ruling was finalized.

Before prosecutors decided to drop the case, a female pastor at a church in Yokohama published a statement on Sept. 19, 2018, jointly with a group called “the association supporting and protecting pastor A.”

“The chaplain, who had sincerely cared for patients, was falsely accused,” the statement said.

The Christ Newspaper and the Christian Newspaper quoted this statement in their articles.

Two other pastors requested support for the chaplain on Facebook, saying, “We believe the statement is true and we agree with it.”

In her lawsuit, the woman argues that these statements and articles clearly gave the impression that she is a liar who made false accusations about the chaplain.

“The psychological distress caused by secondary victimization of sexual violence is as bad as the primary victimization,” she said. “I have not received a proper apology, and I’m still hurting.”

The female pastor who published the statement said: “I have apologized for hurting the plaintiff with my statement, and I have retracted it.

“But I would like to have a legal judgment determine whether or not the content of the statement constitutes defamation.”

The Christ Newspaper said the woman’s lawsuit “came out of the blue.”

“We have responded by deleting the article containing the statement upon the plaintiff’s request,” the newspaper said.

Word of Life Press Ministries, a religious corporation that operates the Christian Newspaper, still publishes the article online.

“We have no comment because we cannot contact the representative (of the newspaper),” the organization said.

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