A 66-year-old man who was acquitted of murdering a female high school student in 2008 was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stabbing a 38-year-old woman in Osaka, police said.
Katsumi Naka was arrested on suspicion of attempting to kill Hiromi Yoshitome by stabbing her many times with a knife, police said. He was caught on the spot by police with a 10-cm knife in his hand.
Yoshitome was seriously injured and is receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Police allege that Naka said he had a financial dispute with the woman, quoting him as saying: "I stabbed her because I was beaten" and that he was defending himself.
Naka, who is unemployed, was charged in the 2008 murder of a 15-year-old high school student in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, but was acquitted in 2012, in a ruling that was finalized by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
He served time in prison after being found guilty on a separate charge of theft in August of last year. He was released in late September, according to informed sources.