Odakyu Electric Railway Co. conductor Takao Sekine, 33, is accused of taking a 16-year-old girl from Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, on an empty "Romance Car" limited express passenger train and touching her breasts and genitals on the night of Dec. 25 last year. He is furthermore suspected of committing sexual acts with the girl at a karaoke shop in Sagamihara on Dec. 26, and at a hotel in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on Jan. 26.
According to police, Sekine has admitted to the allegations regarding the karaoke shop and the hotel. As for the incident on the train, however, he was quoted as saying that he remembered "holding her by both shoulders, but not much after that."
Police have said that Sekine met the 16-year-old through a dating site in December 2011, and sent her an email inviting her for a ride on an out-of-service train on Dec. 25, the day of the first alleged assault. Sekine -- who was on duty at the time -- snuck the girl onto the Shinjuku bound train when it stopped at Shinyurigaoka Station in Asao Ward, in the Kanagawa Prefecture city of Kawasaki.
Odakyu Electric Railway has said it learned that Sekine had let a student on the empty train when another Odakyu employee saw her get on at Shinyurigaoka Station. When Odakyu officials questioned Sekine about it, he apparently told them he was "trying to protect a minor who had run away from home."
"We will deal with the situation severely once we have confirmed the details," an Odakyu official told the Mainichi. "We deeply apologize to our passengers and all those concerned over this regrettable incident."
source: The Mainichi Daily News
