The Osaka Prefectural Police headquarters (Mainichi/Tsuyoshi Fujita)

       OSAKA -- A 27-year-old man in this west Japan city has been arrested on suspicion of attempted rape after asking a woman he didn't know to charge his cellphone at her home, Osaka Prefectural Police announced on Nov. 5.

       Police arrested Tomohiro Ogawa, who lives in Osaka's Kita Ward, on charges including attempted rape and breaking and entering. The suspect allegedly asked a passerby to charge his phone and went to her home.

       Ogawa has reportedly told police, "I talked to some 1,500 women who looked kind in the past three years and entered the homes of about 20 of them."

       Ogawa was arrested specifically for asking a woman in her 20s for directions on a street in Osaka Prefecture on the night of Oct. 3, and accompanied her to her home, saying, "Let me charge my cellphone." He apparently tried to assault her after forcibly entering her home and throwing her on a couch. Police said that he has admitted to the allegations.

       According to the prefectural police's first investigation division, the woman became suspicious after seeing that Ogawa's cellphone battery charge was at 90%, and resisted him while demanding that he leave. After she said that she would call the police, Ogawa apparently bowed to the ground in apology, saying, "Please don't tell anybody," and fled. A security camera around the area captured a person who appears to be Ogawa on a bicycle.

       The Osaka District Court indicted him on charges including attempted rape on Nov. 5.

       (Japanese original by Kumiko Yasumoto and Yusuke Kori, Osaka City News Department)

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0