Police have arrested a teacher for filming himself raping some 70 schoolgirls, who had apparently been selling their bodies online only to be tricked into meeting him so he could drug them for sex.

According to investigators, the 56-year-old Tokyo middle school teacher was found to be in possession of 150 DVDs, 100 of which contained recordings he had made of himself sexually assaulting young women. Police estimate at least 70 of the films involved minors, as they helpfully came with school names and years.

In addition, searches of his phone and PC turned up 1800 email addresses thought to be connected to the case.

Police finally cottoned on to his antics when the case of a 15-year-old girl he had drugged and ravished in a Shinjuku hotel came to light.

His modus operandi was apparently simply to pick up girls prostituting themselves on deaikei sites – in the case which came to light, he introduced himself with “I’m Hiro, 32. Won’t you meet me in the city for ¥80,000?”

He then asked the girl to send him pictures of herself topless. She sent him the pictures, but declined to meet him. Over the next 2 days he sent approximately 100 mails demanding she meet him and threatening to make public the pictures she had sent him.

She finally caved and agreed to meet him, which led to her being drugged and assaulted.

Still she did not report the matter – only when she had returned home only to find him demanding to meet her again whilst threatening to come to her house or tell her school did she finally opt to report the matter to police.

The fact that most of his victims were schoolgirls selling their bodies online likely contributed to their reluctance to report the incidents – although such prostitutes are treated as victims rather than criminals, even reporting unsuccessful efforts at blackmail would lead to police or parents investigating what the girl was doing on such a site in the first place, leading to counselling, shame and a loss of future income.

It is not clear whether he actually paid any of his later victims for their services as agreed, although if he was offering ¥80,000 (well over the going rate) it seems unlikely, and the extremely high figure likely attracted particularly gullible or greedy girls who could ill afford the attention, to say nothing of his efforts to harass and blackmail them.

He admits the charges:

“I’ve been using child prostitutes for the past 10 years. 4 or 5 years ago I started targeting 14 or 15-year-old girls who do as they’re told, and blackmailing them. Seeing the ‘other face’ of girls the same age as my pupils was especially arousing. I would enjoy watching the DVDs later.”

Police are investigating the full scope of his activities.

The local school board apologised for employing a serial child rapist as a teacher, calling it “exceedingly regrettable”: