Pinoy accused in rape-slay of Japanese coed admits to crime

A Filipino man arrested last year for the 2004 rape-slay of a university student has admitted to the crime, according to a report on Kyodo News, citing the accused's counsel.

The accused, Lampano Jerico Mori, 36, has expressed willingness to pay for what he did to the 21-year-old victim, a second-year student of Ibaraki University, his counsel said.

Mori, who was arrested in September last year, and two other Filipino accomplices allegedly abducted the victim near the town of Ami in the Ibaraki Prefecture on January 31, 2004 and then sexually assaulted her.

The suspects allegedly stabbed the victim repeatedly after raping her until she died at a riverbank in Miho village.

The two accomplices, who were both minors under Japanese law at that time, fled Japan following the crime, the report said.

Mori's counsel blamed the two accomplices, now reportedly aged 34 and 32 and have been placed on an international wanted list, for his client's actions.

The report said during  trial at the Mito District Court, prosecutors told the court that DNA sample found at the hand of the victim almost matches that of the defendant. —KBK, GMA News