The Utsunomiya District Court on Friday accepted as evidence interrogation records showing a man admitting to the murder of a 7-year-old girl in Tochigi Prefecture in 2005, despite the fact he made a not-guilty plea and said the confession was coerced.
The credibility of the recorded confession of Takuya Katsumata, 33, has been a major point of contention in the trial because there is no significant physical evidence and no murder weapon has been found.
Presided over by Judge Satomi Matsubara, the professional and lay judges accepted the prosecutors' records made in June 2014 after Katsumata was arrested earlier that month on suspicion of killing Yuki Yoshida.