NAGOYA - A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced a male elementary school teacher to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for taking indecent images of pupils and sharing them with other teachers on social media.
The suspended term for Daiki Sawada, a 34-year-old teacher at the publicly run school in Tokyo, handed down by the Nagoya District Court, is the first ruling on a member of the alleged teachers' voyeurism ring.
All seven members of the group, mostly active and former teachers from Tokyo and four prefectures, have been indicted.
In the ruling, Judge Megumi Murase said Sawada's actions were an "obvious and malicious" crime, in which he took advantage of his position as a teacher who was supposed to protect students.
Murase said that his term was suspended because he has agreed to pay compensation to the parents of the victims and has received therapy.
According to the ruling, Sawada habitually took underwear images of two female students between November 2022 and March 2023 at a Tokyo elementary school. He also left bodily fluid on swimsuits of two girls, then 9 years old, between July and September in 2023.
