Former Director of Kumamoto Facilities for the Disabled Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Sexual Assault

From Kumamoto Prefectural TV via Yahoo! Japan

March 6 2023

KUMAMOTO – A director of a corporation that operates facilities for the disabled was arrested for sexually assaulting a teenage female user. The Kumamoto District Court sentenced him to five years in prison.

The defendant sentenced was Katsudai Hirata, 50, former director of a general incorporated association that operates facilities for the disabled in Kumamoto City. According to the verdict, Hirata was accused of having sexually assaulted a 19-year-old woman who used the facility in March 2022 while he was serving as its director, taking advantage of her inability to resist due to her disability.

At the sentencing on March 6, Kumamoto District Court Chief Judge Masamichi Hirashima stated, “The victim’s healthy growth and development were significantly adversely affected. The crime was severely condemned, saying, “The victim suffered significant adverse effects on her healthy growth and development, and it is a crime that discredits those who are engaged in work at facilities for the mentally disabled. He sentenced the victim to five years in prison, as opposed to the six years he had sought.