KYODO NEWS - Oct 17, 2018 - 20:20 | All, Lifestyle

A Japanese court sentenced a German man to six years in prison Wednesday for an attempted murder when he was traveling in Nagasaki last year, saying he committed the crime to vent his anger after being turned down by women.

Tobias Gross, 25, stabbed a Japanese man in his 50s multiple times in the neck on a street in the southwestern Japanese city early on Aug. 3, 2017, according to the Nagasaki District Court. He also set a shirt on fire in his hotel room before going outside and assaulting the man.

(Nagasaki District Court)

The defendant "was upset at failing to pick up women at a bar that night and decided to express his anger by killing someone," Presiding Judge Taku Komatsumoto said in handing down the sentence. "His motive was extremely malicious and he had a strong intent to kill."

Prosecutors had sought a 12-year sentence during the lay judge trial. But the court reduced it believing the victim's injuries were relatively light.

Lawyers defending Gross had argued that the crime was committed under the influence of alcohol causing a "different personality to come to the fore."