Woman gets suspended term for aiding daughter hide severed head
A Japanese court on Wednesday sentenced a woman to 14 months in prison, suspended for three years, for helping her daughter hide the head of a man, who was allegedly murdered and decapitated in Sapporo in 2023.
Hiroko Tamura, 62, had pleaded not guilty to aiding in the abandonment of the corpse and allowing her daughter to film an act of desecration during her trial at the Sapporo District Court. Her daughter Runa faces murder and other charges for allegedly killing and beheading the man.
In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Shiro Watanabe said Tamura's role was not insignificant, given that she was in a position where she was able to stop her daughter's actions.
But the judge granted Tamura a suspended sentence, as her involvement "was limited to allowing the head to be hidden after it had already been brought home."
Runa allegedly stabbed the 62-year-old man in the neck at a hotel in the Susukino entertainment district sometime between July 1 and 2 in 2023, then beheaded him and took the head home in a suitcase.
Prosecutors demanded an 18-month prison term for Tamura, saying she played a significant role in the crime by providing a place to hide the head and abetting her daughter in concealing and damaging it.
According to the ruling, Tamura allowed Runa to hide the victim's head at their home between July 3 and 24 and consented to her daughter filming an act of desecration, in which she further damaged the head.
Tamura's defense counsel had argued that she was not legally liable for Runa's actions, saying the abandonment of the body had been completed when the daughter brought the head home. An appeal was filed following Wednesday's ruling.
Tamura's husband Osamu, a 61-year-old psychiatrist, was sentenced in March to 16 months in prison, suspended for four years, for aiding his daughter in the abandonment and desecration of the head.
Related coverage:
Father cleared of aiding daughter in Sapporo beheading murder
Father pleads not guilty to aiding daughter over Sapporo beheading
Woman, parents indicted over Sapporo hotel beheading murder
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