A Japanese court sentenced a US marine to seven years in prison, the judiciary said in a statement on Wednesday, in the latest sexual assault case involving American military personnel in the country.
James Clayton, 22, who pleaded not guilty, was accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her twenties last year in Okinawa, according to Kyodo News and other local media.
The Naha District Court on Tuesday sentenced Clayton to seven years in jail for “the crime of causing injury by attempting to have non-consensual sexual intercourse”, a spokesman for the court said.
Presiding judge Kazuhiko Obata described Clayton’s behaviour as “so dangerous that it could have threatened her life, and highly malicious”, Jiji Press reported.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison term.
An aerial view of the US Kadena airbase in Okinawa prefecture. Photo: Jiji Press / EPA-EFE
Clayton’s lawyers argued that he had not used physical force against the woman but “only hugged her and left”, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported.
AloJapan.com