The former chief prosecutor of Osaka pleaded guilty to raping a colleague

OSAKA (Kyodo) – The former head of the Osaka District Prosecutors’ Office pleaded guilty Friday to raping a female prosecutor under her supervision in 2018 while she was drunk.

Kentaro Kitagawa, a 65-year-old lawyer, said he “does not deny” the sexual abuse allegations against him, saying “I have caused serious harm to the victim and am deeply remorseful,” during the first hearing in the case at the Osaka District Court.

As the drunken woman was taking a taxi home from a party with Kitagawa and his colleagues on September 12, 2018, he forced her into the taxi, drove her to his official residence in Osaka, and raped her there, prosecutors said. their introduction.

Kitagawa, who was the chief prosecutor at the time, ignored the woman’s pleas to stop assaulting her when she regained consciousness, telling her: “You are my woman now,” the Osaka High Prosecutor’s Office said.

According to the indictment and the prosecutor’s office, he raped her late at night until the morning of the next day.

“I became a victim of the leadership of my organization, and my own dignity as a prosecutor was trampled,” the victim said at a press conference after the hearing.

She was told he would “die if (the rape) was made public, which would embarrass other prosecutors,” she said.

Originally from Ishikawa Prefecture, Kitagawa became a prosecutor in 1985. He also worked as a deputy prosecutor in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office and head of the criminal investigations department in the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

After leaving, he registered as a lawyer with the Osaka Bar Association.