Stalker learned victim's married name, address during police questioning

TOKYO —

A man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in Japan learned her new married name and the area where she lived from police officers who arrested him for stalking her, media reported Friday.

Hideto Kozutsumi was arrested in Kanagawa Prefecture last year on charges of stalking and harassing Rie Miyoshi after he repeatedly threatened to kill her in a series of emails following the pair’s split.

Kozutsumi could only email because Miyoshi had married another man, taking his name, and moved to a different city.

Police arrested Kozutsumi for the harassment—reading out an arrest warrant that included his former girlfriend’s new name and partial address.

He received a suspended sentence and began pursuing her again by email, but without making threats, reports said.

Police say that Kozutsumi then started posting on an online message board, asking for information about Miyoshi’s husband, saying he was a friend who wanted to keep in touch. Police believe this is how he was able to find Miyoshi.

Miyoshi asked police to re-arrest Kozutsumi, but officers said there was nothing they could do because harassment by email is not a crime and because the wording did not contain any threats, referring to a “breach of contract,” instead.

Repeatedly sending faxes or harassing by constant telephone calls, however, is an offense, police noted.

Kozutsumi found Miyoshi and stabbed her to death before hanging himself at her apartment in Zushi last Tuesday.

Broadcaster TBS quoted a police official saying that reading out the arrest warrant was required under the law but that “in retrospect, measures could have been taken not to disclose her details.”

© 2012 AFP
Cr : Japan Today