KYOTO (Kyodo) Prosecutors Thursday charged three Kyoto University students who formerly belonged to the school's football club with gang-raping a female university student in December.
The prosecutors said Ryo Ikeguchi, 23, Jumpei Shirai, 22, and Masahiro Kido, 22, gang-raped the 19-year-old woman in the early hours of Dec. 23 at Kido's apartment in Kyoto after getting her drunk at a party that started the previous night with two other women also in attendance.
The prosecutors also charged Ikeguchi with raping one of the two other women, a 20-year-old university student, at the party. Police initially suspected that all three suspects gang-raped the 20-year-old, but the prosecutors decided not to indict Shirai and Kido, citing a lack of hard evidence.
The three, all seniors, had the victims drink "shochu" spirits as they played drinking games, the prosecutors said.
Ikeguchi denied committing rape and claimed the sex was consensual. The two others confessed, the prosecutors said.