Sentenced: Airi Kakimoto, 33 Found Frozen To Death In Room Her Parents Kept Her In For 15 Years

[Sugar Cookie]

A Japanese couple have been arrested after their 33-year-old daughter was found frozen to death in a tiny room where they had kept her under lock and key for at least 15 years.

Police in Osaka said the body of Airi Kakimoto's was found in a state of extreme malnutrition, weighing just 19 kg (42 lb) after her parents reported her death on Saturday.

Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, have allegedly confessed to feeding her only once a day and confining her in a 3-square-metre room.

'Our daughter was mentally ill and, from age 16 or 17, she became violent, so we kept her inside the room,' police quoted her parents as saying.

People with mental and physical disabilities - and their families – are often stigmatised in Japan despite recent efforts to change public attitudes.

Police say that Airi's room was monitored by numerous cameras and had a double door that could only be unlocked from the outside. It contained a makeshift toilet attached to a water tank outside.

Other surveillance cameras were also in place outside the single-storey home, which was surrounded by a 2-metre high fence.

Airi is believed to have died around 18 December.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5214611/Japanese-pair-held-daughter-freezes-death.html

 

[Salepo]

This is incredibly sad.

 

[Sejanus]

I am thinking the real stigma is killling you kids after years of isolation and mistreatment.

 

[lithiumgirl]

Oh no ... this is horrible.

 

[Stormcloud]

Mental illness is stigmatised?

How about those who can treat any human being, especially their own child, in this manner?

Who was truly mentally ill. The girl confined, or her asshole parents?

 

[mybum62]

I believe these parents diagnosed her themselves. I believe they were very controlling and as she wanted her freedom around the age of late teens she began to rebel and that my friends is why she was locked in that room. So they could control her. Incredibly sad any human being could do this to another for any reason.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The Osaka District Court has sentenced a 57-year-old man and his 55-year-old wife to 13 years in prison for parental neglect resulting in the death of their 33-year-old schizophrenic daughter whom they kept confined in a room at their home in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, for 15 years.

According to the court ruling on Thursday, Yasutaka Kakimoto and his wife Yukari kept their daughter Airi in a small room fitted with a double door that could be unlocked only from the outside. Inside the unheated room, there was a makeshift toilet and a tube designed to allow the woman to drink water from a tank sitting outside.

About 10 outdoor surveillance cameras were installed at the house in case any visitors should come. A two-meter-high fence surrounded the house.

The Kakimotos reported Airi’s death to the police in December 2017. An autopsy revealed she had frozen to death and that she was in a state of extreme malnutrition.

The Kaimotos told the court they confined Airi to the tiny room for around 15 years because they said her mental illness made her violent.

Airi was diagnosed as being schizophrenic when she was 17, the court heard.

Parents get 13 years for letting 33-year-old schizophrenic daughter freeze to death

The Osaka District Court has sentenced a 57-year-old man and his 55-year-old wife to 13 years in prison for parental neglect resulting in the death of their 33-year-old schizophrenic daughter whom they kept confined in a room at their home in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, for 15 years. According...

japantoday.com