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A 42-year-old man, who was arrested for abusing his 14-year-old stepson and coercing the boy to commit suicide in 2014, has been sentenced to six years in prison.
The Tokyo District Court handed down its ruling on Akira Murayama on Thursday, Fuji TV reported. Murayama had testified that he beat his stepson Yuito but denied ever telling him to commit suicide.
The court heard that Murayama violently hit the boy across the face, chest, and other parts of his body on July 29, 2014. The boy's mother found him hanging by his neck above his bed at their apartment in Nishi-Tokyo at around 9 a.m. on July 30. The mother called 119 and the boy was taken to hospital where he died a short time later.
At the hospital, medical personnel discovered bruising all over the boy's body. Police later arrested Murayama on a charge of assault.
Yuito's mother told police that when Murayama beat him on July 29, he told the boy he should kill himself within 24 hours.
Murayama told the court that the boy's mother also beat the boy.
After his arrest for assault, Murayama said he had been disciplining his stepson since April 2013, hoping it would make him stronger. He also forced the boy to wear a face mask after telling him that he had bad breath.
Yuito's classmates said that when he attended a sports meet in 2014 they could see bruises on his arms and legs.
The court heard that Murayama refused to let Yuito go to school for about two months before his suicide.
Murayama had been living with Yuito and his mother since 2011.
© Japan Today
29 Comments
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zones2surf
I know in Japan they have sentences that include hard labor. I sure wish they had sentences that included hard beatings. Seriously, what a monster. 6 years is not long enough. Should be more like 15~20 years. What a waste of a human being, to cause actions that lead a young person to commit suicide.
SauloJpn
What a worthless piece of ***!!!
HongoTAFEinmate
This is wrong in so many ways. The sentence, the crimes of this person, the alledged role of the mother. I don't really know where to begin.
At the same time, however, the thing I find most upsetting is this whole "disciplining to make him stronger" malarkey. If I close my eyes, I can almost imagine a self-absorbed little weed of man picking on somebody weaker than himself. The whole image makes me sick. What does acting like such as d*ck really achieve. I hope this chap really gets what he deserves while in prison.
nath
Why didn't the mother take her son and leave? Better to be homeless.
gokai_wo_maneku
6 years? What if the boy killed was the son of the judge? I wonder if he would then get what he really deserved. And "found the boy hanging"? Yeah, I'll bet.
dmhondz
Saw this in the news this morning. The boy did not go to school 2 months before he killed himself, between those dates the stepfather was beating this boy. I think he was calling the boy "okama" (gay). He also forced the boy to put rope around his neck as if to practice killing himself and he took pictures of him. Poor boy to suffer so much.
descendent
Because she was beating him as well. Poor kid definitely lost out in the birth lottery.
nath
Okama is a cross-dresser, not gay.
Poor kid. Put the mom in jail too if that's the case.
nakanoguy01
the mother also deseves punishment for beating the boy. the step-father and mom are scum and should be treated as such. this is the only time i belive in religioun because i want these two to burn in hell.
Alistair Carnell
Subhuman scum, both stepfather and 'so called' mother.
ohara
Six years. And then he's free. Sickening.
papigiulio
6 years? Surely there is a 0 missing?
TheGodfather
And what form of "discipline" would have occurred HAD THE CHILD BEEN A GIRL? Any guesses??
RIP Yuito-kun!! :-(
dcog9065
6 years!? Couldn't they have done better? The mother also should be charged - how pathetic of her to stand around doing nothing
smithinjapan
Typical Japan... a mere six years for torture, mental and physical, and then practically murdering the boy himself. Should have been 20 years easy. Meanwhile a guy who puts a bit of oil on a temple door gets nearly half that, or might.
Garthgoyle
He only gets 6 years and on top of that, the mother goes free!? Wow!
nath
Where did it say the mother goes free?
borscht
Well, according to the Japanese gov't, Murayama should reject the sentence because the judges are not experts in 'disciplining to make him stronger" or child abuse.
Six years is too few; should be 14. To make him stronger, of course.
smithinjapan
Strangerland: "Where did it say the mother goes free?"
Where did it say she was charged?
azukaya
If they fail as parents, their genes will be swept for evolution; in that way, they get what they deserve.
mtuffizi
6 years? must be a big joke. imagine how much pain the boy suffered physically and mentally. the stepdad and mom should be locked up for life. this type of human being not suitable for society.
Joshua Degreiff
6 years is nothing. The rules of Japan need to change asap.
Aly Rustom
6 years is not enough for this scumbag.
LFRAgain
Six years is an unconscionable sentence for this monster.
At 42 years of age, Murayama is irredeemable and has absolutely no right or business rejoining society at any point during the remainder of his natural life.
Or does the judge genuinely believe the moral, sociopathic depravity that led him to essentially murder a child was an isolated anomaly? Murayama would work his evil in other ways in society! If given the opportunity. Of that, you can be sure.
A 6-year sentence is a crime in and of itself.
And what about the "mother"?
Miguel Lozano
LFRAgain, talking about your comment, and based on what he did, I really dont think Muyarama could work his evil in other ways in society; surely he could work his evil with his offspring but I dont think he could do it outside this sphere.
Fouxdefa
6 years...for making miserable and causing the end of a life just as it should have been blossoming. Mother sounds like a piece of work too.
LFRAgain
Miguel Lozano,
Respectfully, I disagree. The child he prodded into suicide wasn't biologically his, but rather his stepson. That he could find it in himself to drive the offspring of another person -- a 14-year-old, no less -- to such depths of dispair as to commit suicide leaves plenty of room for him to find other outlets for a decidedly violent, aggressive, antisocial mindset.
In a typical work setting alone where he would ostensibly have day-to-day contact with others, he would find plenty of opportunity to destroy lives just by being the amoral a-hole he so very clearly is.
He's no stranger to inflicting pain on others, and he obviously possesses very strong convictions regarding what constitutes "stronger," by his estimation, to the point that he has set himself as judge, jury, and executioner for a 14-year-old child who failed to meet his twisted standards.
The kicker? He still doesn't think he did anything wrong.
This guy is a sociopath just waiting for the right circumstances to commit murder.
TheGodfather
The article states that "Murayama had been living with Yuito and his mother since 2011" but it doesn't say that the couple were married. The child would only have been a step-son if the couple had been married.
Therefore the situation was as you described it. The man was "a sociopath just waiting for the right circumstances to commit murder" and that is what he did. And was that what the mother wanted all along?
What do you think?? ;-)
bookowls
This guy should be locked up for the rest of his life. End of story.