Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
A 28-year-old man went on trial Friday over the death of a two-year-old boy whom he was babysitting in 2014.
The defendant, Yuji Motte, is also charged with sexually abusing the boy and taking nude photos of other children who had been in his care, Fuji TV reported. The photos of at least 20 naked children were found in his computer files, police said.
Motte was arrested in March 2014 in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture, over the death of 2-year-old Riku Yamada, one of two siblings who were in his care at his apartment at the time.
The 22-year-old mother of Riku and his 8-month-old younger brother arranged for the babysitter through a website that brokers babysitting services. She met a man in his 30s, representing the babysitting service, at Shinsugita Station in Yokohama on a Friday night and said she needed babysitting services until Sunday night.
That man, in turn, handed the children over to Motte, police said. After the babysitter didn't show up with her sons on the Sunday night, the woman alerted police. The next day, police went to Motte's apartment where they found the 2-year-old boy dead of unspecified causes. The 8-month-old boy was unharmed.
Motte has said that he fell asleep after taking medicine and when he awoke, the child was dead in the bathtub. An autopsy found that Riku had suffocated, probably by having his mouth and nose covered by Motte's hands, police said.
At the time, Motte had a website on which he advertised his services as a babysitter.
Lay judges will hear the case and a verdict is expected on July 20.
© Japan Today
19 Comments
Login to comment
Mha Ann Caagusan
Please lock him up forever!
wontond
Death sentence.
Peter Qinghai
Messed up on so many levels. Of course the website has nothing to do with this. I'm sure not all 20STHs who want to babysit children are drug using, "fell asleep after taking medicine", pedophiles.
mtuffizi
he should die the same way as the 2 year old and do not even waste taxpayer money to put him in jail.
Aly Rustom
Absolutely.
TheGodfather
I am probably a bit biased here but I am assuming that if the father was around he would not have allowed such a situation to occur.
There is a reason that fathers exist!!
Disillusioned
All hatred aside, there obviously is a problem with screening of babysitters. There should be an offical registra put into place to stop this kind of thing.
Kokuzi
It's worth noting that the mother met a stranger "Friday night and said she needed babysitting services until Sunday night." Not trying to shift blame for a terrible crime, but what kind of mother would give her 2-year-old and 8-month-old to a total stranger for a full two days? The story involves both parental responsibility and babysitting services.
Aly Rustom
Exactly, and if she was a divorcee who would rather hand over her sons to a stranger than to their rightful father for 2 days then lock her up too! (of course if the father is dead, or disappeared with some yankee kinpatsu chick, in which case I will retract the above comment)
An unfit mother. And you're not shifting blame. She is VERY MUCH to blame. You don't give your kid FOR 2 DAYS to someone you just met. That's beyond stupid- that's unfit to be a mother.
DaDude
I was once before a 22 year old elementary school teacher yet for some reason I would not trust my young children with a 22 year old male particularly one I never met. If he was a teacher at the Kindergarten I send my kids, that may be a different story.
OB one
Take him out and hang him, social service should look at the mother !
Brian Wheway
Taking pictures of babies and young children!?!? what a sick ****
LFRAgain
You're also making the unfounded assumption that people use babysitters only if they are single mothers. Which simply isn't true.
The mother is definitely no angel in this, and if I recall the original story correctly, she made some truly horrendous bad choices in selecting she this Motte monster to babysit her child.
But monsters can still get get our children whether dad is in the picture or not, no matter how much we want to project an image of omnipotent invincibility in the face of all the dangers the world throws at our children. The truth is we aren't invincible. But we can make smarter choices and teach our children to make smarter choices. And yes, knock the occasional head if push comes to shove.
But to blame this on single parenting rather than on the animal who killed the child is a mistake.
TheGodfather
"You're also making the unfounded assumption that people use babysitters only if they are single mothers"
This man is not, and never was a babysitter. A good father would be able to tell the difference. A good father can tell a kiddy-fiddling, child murdering paedophile when he meets one, but a bad mother would not care!!
"This mother deserves sympathy"
It is the child who deserves sympathy. You know, the innocent child who is dead. The mother should rot in jail under the "joint enterprise" law and any sympathizers can go and visit her whenever they want.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_purpose
smithinjapan
Lock this guy up for life... now! And the mother needs to be held responsible as well, to an extent.
smithinjapan
Aly Rustom: "An unfit mother. And you're not shifting blame. She is VERY MUCH to blame. You don't give your kid FOR 2 DAYS to someone you just met. That's beyond stupid- that's unfit to be a mother."
Agree completely with your comment.
TheGodfather
"unless we can foresee the future and have a system like the ones in the movie The Minority Report"
We have it, and you're looking at it!!