A former junior high school teacher was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for molesting boys and girls in Kagoshima Prefecture.
Yuki Morimoto, 27, was found guilty by the Kagoshima District Court of four counts, including indecent assault and attempted rape, in cases involving 13 children aged 3 to 12 between November 2002 and last February.
He attempted to rape a girl in a storage room at an elementary school in Kirishima, lured a group of three boys and a girl into a public lavatory in a park in Amami where he made them touch his body, and committed other obscene acts against children, the court ruled. In some cases, Morimoto recorded his crimes with a camcorder.
Prosecutors demanded 15 years, saying he victimized at least 40 to 50 kids since around 1998. Morimoto, from Yamatotakada, Nara Prefecture, was a part-time teacher at a public junior high school in Uken, Kagoshima Prefecture.