SPURNED teacher writes rude graffiti about schoolgirl

Mainichi Shimbun - Tokyo,Japan

Spurned teacher writes rude graffiti about schoolgirl

ISE, Mie -- A middle-aged elementary school teacher who wrote slanderous graffiti promising to rape a pupil and boasting of having paid her for sex has been arrested, police said Saturday.

Yongo Municipal Elementary School teacher Shigefumi Murai, 49, was arrested initially for criminal defamation, then later slapped with an additional charge of blackmail.

The veteran teacher, with 27 years in the classroom under his belt, admits to the allegations.

"She wouldn't pay any attention to me," Murai told the police.

Police said that at various times from April 23 to May 22, Murai wrote graffiti targeting a girl who had been in his sixth grade class before graduating from elementary school at the end of March this year.

Murai, police said, scrawled his messages in prominent places where the girl would see them, such as on walls near her home, on vending machines and on electricity poles near the junior high school she now attends.

The experienced instructor is accused of writing such inflammatory comments as "I'm going to rape you" and "we had sex that was paid for."

The graffiti was all written in a thick, black, waterproof marker.

Police said Murai was arrested May 22 as he wandered around near his school carrying a black marker identical to the one that had been used to write the graffiti.

Bachelor Murai was known for inviting his pupils to accompany him on trips outside of school, including to video game arcades. The girl targeted in the graffiti did not attend any of these trips. (Mainichi Shimbun, June 12, 2004)