Japan’s Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by a US Air Force member against a five-year prison term handed down by a lower court for sexually assaulting an underage girl in the southern prefecture of Okinawa in 2023.
The decision by Justice Miura Mamoru of the court’s Second Petty Bench means the sentence for the defendant, Brennon Washington, will be finalized.
The 26-year-old defendant, who belongs to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, allegedly approached the girl, who was under the age of 16, with malicious intent at a park before forcibly taking her to his home. He was charged with sexual assaulting her there in December, 2023. The two were not known to each other.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he thought the girl was 18 years old at the time and that the act was consensual.
In the first trial, the Naha District Court sentenced the defendant to five years in prison. The presiding judge said the girl’s claim that she used gestures and other means to tell the defendant her age is credible, based on security camera footage.
The judge described the case as extremely malicious, saying the defendant continued the assault even after the girl clearly rejected him.
The Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court later dismissed an appeal filed by the defendant.
Following this and other incidents, the Okinawa prefectural police in 2024 launched a new information-sharing system with the prefectural government for sexual assault cases involving US service members and related personnel.
AloJapan.com