Miyazaki killed the four girls "to satisfy his sexual desire and appetite to own videotapes of corpses," said Presiding Justice Tokiyasu Fujita of the top court's No. 3 petty bench, describing the motivation as "selfish and cruel," and allowing no room for commutation.

In all four murders, Miyazaki took the girls into his car, strangled them and in one case dismembered the body and in another incinerated the corpse. He also sent one girl's remains to her family.

Miyazaki was arrested in July 1989 in a separate abduction attempt, and later that year admitted kidnapping and killing the four girls aged between 4 and 7. His trial began in March 1990.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 21, 2006
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