Psychiatrists have informed the Niigata District Court that Nobuyuki Sato, on trial for abducting a young girl and confining her in his Niigata Prefecture home for more than nine years, was mentally competent when he committed the crime, sources close to the case said Tuesday.
Nobuyuki SatoThe psychiatrists concluded that Sato, 39, was able to tell right from wrong and was mentally fit when he allegedly abducted the 9-year-old girl in November 1990 in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture. Sato confined the girl for nine years and two months at his home in Kashiwazaki until she was rescued in January 2000.
Sato suffered from a schizoid personality disorder and an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder at the time of the incident and "the disorders somewhat affected his judgment," the doctors concluded.