A Japanese father who kept his mentally ill adult son in a cage for decades received a suspended jail term on Wednesday, a court spokeswoman said .
While the court found 73 - year -old Yoshitane Yamasaki guilty , the judge also criticised authorities for failing to help him care for his son, who had been violent towards his parents.
Yamasaki , from the western city of Sanda , was found guilty of confining his son , now 42 , for five years until this year . His son is now in the care of local authorities .
Yamasaki has confessed to caging his son for more than two decades but prosecutors only pursued five years of the crime because of the statute of limitations , local media said .
Judge Kimikazu Murakawa sentenced him to one year and six months in prison , suspended for three years, according to a spokeswoman at the Kobe District Court .
Defence lawyers had argued for leniency because Yamasaki sought but did not receive public assistance.
His son was reportedly forced to live inside a wooden cage — one metre (3 . 3 feet ) high and 1 . 8 metres wide — built in a prefabricated hut next to the main house .
Yamasaki and his wife , who died in January, allowed their son to stay in the main building with them for about 12 hours every other day , according to the Kobe Shimbun newspaper .
The couple reportedly confined their son after violent episodes , including one in which he bit his mother .
The case became public in January, when Yamasaki consulted local officials about care for his ailing wife and again raised his son ’ s situation.
Yamasaki said he showed the cage to local officials around 1993 to seek advice , but received no feedback , Kyodo News agency reported .
The judge, while condemning Yamasaki , said local authorities had failed to provide support .
“ No empathy can be extended as confining the victim for such a long time could have been avoided , ” the judge said , according to the Kobe newspaper .
But , he added , “ the local community had a duty to take central roles as a safety net to allow those in need of assistance to live their lives with dignity . ”
“ And the community as a whole lacked this awareness , ” the judge said .
(AFP )
0 Comments