Former employees of two facilities for the disabled, both run by the same corporation in Okayama arrested on suspicion of assault

From NHK

January 17 2023

Tsuyama City, OKAYAMA – Michiyo Ota, 70, and Miyuki Kiyohara, 66, both of Tsuyama City were arrested on suspicion of assault.

According to the police, the suspect Ota is suspected of grabbing and dragging a teenage male high school student by his left ankle in October last year when he was a staff member of the Tsuyama Hikari Gakuen Hikari no Kaze, a residential facility for disabled children in Kawasaki, Tsuyama City.

In November last year, when Kiyohara worked as a part-time employee at Hikari Gakuen Satsuki no Oka, a support facility for the disabled in Shozoe, Misaki-cho, he is suspected of punching a woman in her 40s several times in the leg.

The two men have both admitted the charges according to the police.

In November last year, the Tsuyama Social Welfare Association, a social welfare corporation in Tsuyama City that operates the two facilities, reported the two to the prefecture and took disciplinary action against them.

In 2021, another staff member was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a resident, and the organization said: ‘We have been conducting training and other measures, but we did not ensure that each and every one of them was aware of the situation. The corporation commented that, “In the future, all executives and employees will work with a strong sense of commitment to eradicate abuse”.