Local officials admitted Thursday they handed a copy of a school questionnaire, in which a third-grader wrote that she had been physically abused by her father and asked teachers to help, to the father in response to his emphatic request, about a year before his arrest over her death.
The officials at the education board in Noda, Chiba Prefecture, apologized for conducting an act that showed an "extreme lack of consideration," saying that they yielded to Yuichiro Kurihara's request due to his "intimidating demeanor" that made them "frightened."
His daughter, 10-year-old Mia, died last week at home in the city northeast of Tokyo. Police arrested the 41-year-old father on suspicion of assaulting her.