Japan schoolgirl killer locked up

Satomi Mitarai, 12, bled to death at her school

A Japanese schoolgirl who stabbed and killed her classmate earlier this year has been sent to a juvenile correctional facility for two years.

The 11-year-old girl, who cannot be named, was sentenced by a Nagasaki court in a case which shocked Japan.

The girl reportedly told police she was annoyed by comments which her schoolmate, Satomi Mitarai, posted on the internet about her appearance.

She did not face criminal charges because she is under 14.

The family court's judges said the girl should undergo counselling as part of a rehabilitation programme at a special facility for dealing with juveniles, north of Tokyo.

According to Japanese media reports, the court heard that psychiatric tests on the girl suggested she was not suffering from any mental disorder, though she did show signs of a delay in developing the ability to establish relationships.

Satomi Mitarai, 12, died in June after being slashed with a small knife.

"She wrote something bad about my appearance several times on the net a few days before the incident. I didn't like that, so I called her (to a study room) and slashed her neck after getting her to sit on a chair," the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted her killer as telling police.

Juvenile crime

There has been considerable hand-wringing in Japan over youth crime, ever since a shocking incident in 1997 in which a 14-year-old boy killed an 11-year-old and placed his severed head outside the gates of his school.

That prompted the country's parliament to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14.

Last year a 12-year-old boy in Nagasaki was accused of murdering a four-year-old boy by pushing him off a roof.

Although Japan is still one of the safest nations in the world, youth crime has dramatically increased in recent years.

The number of children under 14 committing serious crimes in 2003 rose to 212, a 47% increase on the previous year.