Okinawan rape: no sex occurred but rape charges still a possibility
Weekend update on the ongoing Okinawan alleged rape of the 14-year old girl which occurred last week. Tyrone Hadnott (the suspect) has already been in custody since February 10th, and is allowed to remain in custody without charge for 23 days. After this time, 2 5-day extensions to the custody can be made if a judge gives permission. Regardless of what evidence the police might or might not have, Hirokazu Urata (the deputy police prosecutor in Naha) has already said, “In a case like this, we expect to use the maximum period available”.
A couple more interesting pieces of information have been revealed to the public though by Urata. Regarding Hadnott, he said that the suspect “has told us so far he didn’t think he was being forceful, and that he didn’t think the girl was so young”. Now what he means by “so young” is still open to debate. If he thought she was under the age of consent then it’s still a very serious offence. It also says that he didn’t think he was being forceful “so far”. Does this mean they are hoping during the time in custody he will change his story and tell them he forced her so that he can be charged?
But, even more interesting is the next quote from the deputy prosecutor. Although Hadnott has not denied claims he touched the girl in an inappropriate way, he is quoted as saying “he didn’t have sex with the girl”. Note that this isn’t saying he denied raping the girl; it’s saying it didn’t happen. I may be very wrong here as I don’t have a degree in law (and especially Japanese law about rape), but I thought rape would constitute the 2 parties having sex. Surely, if this is the case then a rape charge cannot be made. But then this is Japan, a country where the very strange can happen and be readily accepted by people.
Walking around Naha yesterday, I saw the protest building up, and was pretty pleased to see a small turnout (in their tens when I passed). A minibus was also going up and down the main street all afternoon blasting out announcements against the military in Okinawa. Sorry I can’t be more specific than that but my listening of Japanese isn’t great when it comes to political broadcasts! The Okinawa governor, Hirokazu Nakaima, is also drafting a proposal to call for the immediate removal of 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa. This plan is already in motion somewhat, but is linked to the current military plan to built a new airfield at Camp Schwab in the north (I believe to replace the base at Futenma). Nakaima wants these issues to be mutually exclusive though, and for the Marines to leave regardless.
That’s about it for now, but I’m sure you can tell these developments are pretty interesting. More to come when I hear anything. Stay tuned.
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Sure, kick off 8,000 Marines… we were permanently sending a lot of them to Guam any way. But if the Japanese Govt. wants it to seem like their idea…