Osaka: Cop on duty when suspect fled station was watching porn

OSAKA (TR) – An officer who was on duty when a 30-year-old suspect escaped from a police station in Tondabayashi City earlier this year was watching an adult video (AV) clip, police sources have revealed to Nikkan Sports (Dec. 13).

Between roughly 9:00 p.m. and 9:40 p.m. on August 12, the sergeant, age in his 40s, at the Tondabayashi Police Station viewed the AV clip and read baseball news on his smartphone.

At around 9:45 p.m. that day, police realized that Junya Hida had bolted from the station after a meeting with a lawyer. At the time, there were about 20 officers on duty. However, none of them saw the suspect flee, police said at the time.

Hida subsequently eluded capture for more than one month. Over that term, police leaked numerous theories to media outlets about his activities, including that he had altered his appearance and was committing thefts.

On September 29, an officer apprehended Hida at a roadside shop in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture on suspicion of shoplifting various food items valued at just over 1,000 yen.

Based on a tattoo of a rabbit on the leg of Hida, the officer realized that the suspect was the fugitive who bolted from the Tondabayashi station in August.

When Hida was found, he was in possession of a bicycle a large amount of camping gear. Police later learned that the fugitive engaged in a cycling tour that extended for hundreds of kilometers after his escape.

Reduced pay

In October, police reprimanded seven officers at the station, including the sergeant, over the incident. Among the punishments was reduced pay. The fact that the officer was watching AV clip was not known until Nikkan Sports spoke to a source at the station.

“The violation was bringing a smartphone into the detention cell,” the source says. “What was being watched doesn’t make [the situation] more serious.”

Prior to fleeing the station, Hida was accused of four crimes. In one case, police accused him of theft and the rape of a woman, aged in her 20s, in her residence in Osaka Prefecture in July. The day after his apprehension in Yamaguchi, police also accused him of aggravated escape.