A police officer who was on duty the night a prisoner escaped from a police station in Tondabayashi, Osaka, was watching porn on his smartphone at the time.

According to investigative officials, Junya Hida —who has been charged with arson, rape and theft —managed to escape from the police interview room on the night of Aug 12. Hida, 30, smashed an acrylic panel separating his lawyer and himself in the meeting room of the police station after the lawyer had left, and then he went out through an unlocked door on the lawyer's side of the partition. The police had removed batteries from an alarm on the door of the meeting room at the station, thinking the device unnecessary as visiting lawyers usually notify the police when they leave.

Hida told his lawyer after a 30-minute consultation around 8 p.m. that he would notify the officers of the end of the meeting, so the lawyer did not need to do so, police said.

Osaka prefectural police revealed on Thursday that the sergeant, who was in charge of the detention center, was viewing adult videos and baseball news for roughly 40 minutes from 9 p.m. on his smartphone at the time, Sankei Shimbun reported. However, internal regulations at Tondabayashi police station prohibit use of such mobile devices while an officer is on duty. It wasn’t until 9:45 p.m. that the officer noticed that Hida had fled the premises.

Hida was on the run for nearly seven weeks before being apprehended on Sept 29 after he stole food at a shop in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

In October, Osaka prefectural police took disciplinary action against seven officers, including the sergeant on duty, for insufficiently managing the detention center. At the time, however, it was reported that the sergeant had been watching the news on his smartphone, as opposed to viewing adult films.

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