The Hiroshima District Court sentenced a 31-year-old man to 15 years in prison Wednesday for fatally abusing his girlfriend's two children.
Kenichi Takao was convicted of repeatedly abusing 6-year-old Yoshiki Segawa and finally suffocating him in September 1999.
The victim was the son of Mitsuko Segawa, 29, who lived with Takao.
The following month, Takao fatally kicked Segawa's 4-year-old daughter, Shoko, who died from blood loss.