A doctor who failed to notice or remove part of a cotton candy stick that was lodged in the brain of a nursery school boy in July 1999, who did not bother to hospitalize the victim and who, the court acknowledged, tried to cover up his ineptitude, was cleared Tuesday of negligence resulting in death.
The Tokyo District Court found Hideki Nemoto, 37, a former doctor at Kyorin University Hospital in Mitaka in the western suburbs of Tokyo, not guilty. Prosecutors had demanded Nemoto be sentenced to one year in prison.
Presiding Judge Masaaki Kawaguchi recognized Nemoto's negligence in failing to conduct a full examination and make a sufficient diagnosis of the boy's condition.