This Week: Handcuffed
Next Week: Frozen in Carbonite
NARA -- A man was arrested Monday after keeping a high school girl prisoner for 22 days, often handcuffing her to his own wrist or the steering wheel of his car to make sure she didn't get away, police said.
Mainichi Shimbun
The car in which the schoolgirl was handcuffed.
Takayuki Kawamoto, 29, was arrested for the illegal confinement of a 17-year-old girl.
He has admitted to the allegations.
"I kept her prisoner because I wanted to be with her," Kawamoto, a dried fruit streetside stall vendor from Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, said.
The schoolgirl escaped from Kawamoto's clutches on Sunday night after he had forced her to work at his fruit stall, police said.
She had raced from the stall outside JR Nara Station to a nearby police box. Kawamoto chased after her and was soon arrested after he admitted to officers that he had been keeping her captive, police said.
Police said Kawamoto and the schoolgirl came into contact through a mobile phone matchmaking site and met on April 24.
Kawamoto ordered the girl, a student at a high school in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, to fall in love with him, threatening to kill her if she failed to do so, police said.
Kawamoto kept the girl as his prisoner from that time until she fled from him on Sunday night, police said.
During the time of her alleged confinement, Kawamoto kept her locked away in his home or in his car.
Police said that Kawamoto would handcuff himself to the girl whenever they were in his home. When they were in his car and he wanted to go out, he would handcuff the girl to the steering wheel.
Kawamoto lives in an apartment together with his mother and a brother.
Kawamoto, police said, forced the girl to send e-mail messages from her phone to friends and family, telling them that she was fine and not to worry.
But when the girl stopped sending messages in early May, her family became worried and had filed a missing person's report with the Osaka Prefectural Police.
Kawamoto's case is chillingly close to the ongoing incident involving Yasuyoshi Kobayashi, who is accused of keeping a girl hostage for more than three months last year. Kobayashi is alleged to have kept the girl under his control by attaching a dog collar and leash to her. (Mainichi Shimbun, May 16, 2005)
