Man sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl in Nara

The Nara District Court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death for kidnapping a 7-year-old girl for the purpose of molestation and killing her in Nara Prefecture in 2004. Kaoru Kobayashi 'molested the girl in order to fulfill his abnormal sexual desire and killed her when she resisted, fearing the assault would be exposed,' Judge Tetsuya Okuda said.

According to the ruling, Kobayashi, 37, kidnapped Kaede Ariyama on Nov 17, 2004, and took her to his apartment in Sango, Nara Prefecture. After molestating her, he killed her and dumped her body in a gutter on a farm road in Heguri in the prefecture. He also took a photo of her body and sent it to her mother via mobile phone, and blackmailed the mother about a month later, saying he would target the girl's younger sister as well."