Wakayama police re-arrest Italian male for fondling school girls

WAKAYAMA (TR) – Officers from the Gobo Police Station on Sunday re-arrested an Italian male already in custody on obscenity charges for fondling the bodies of two high school girls, reports the Sankei Shimbun (April 6).

On March 3 at approximately 6:30 p.m., Vincenzo DeMaio, 40, is alleged to have kissed the two school girls on the head and fondled their chests and lower bodies as they sat inside a train car on the JR Kisei Hon Line.

The suspect has also been accused in a series of similar incidents in Gobo City. On March 4, officers arrested DeMaio for kissing the hand of a 21-year-old woman seated inside a train car on the same line between Iwashiro and Minabe stations. He was arrested for a similar crime on March 15.

DeMaio, who has been charged with indecent assault, has reportedly denied the most recent allegations. However, after his first arrest, the suspect admitted to the charges. “There is no question that I kissed her,” he was quoted by police. “I did not know that (such an act) was in violation of the law in Japan.”