妻子３人殺害、元警察官に死刑　「酌量の余地ない」―福岡地裁

　福岡県小郡市の民家で２０１７年６月、妻子３人を殺害したとして殺人罪に問われた元県警巡査部長中田充被告（４１）の裁判員裁判の判決が１３日、福岡地裁であった。柴田寿宏裁判長は「酌量の余地はなく非常に悪質」として、求刑通り死刑を言い渡した。被告側は即日控訴した。
　中田被告は「完全に冤罪（えんざい）」などと一貫して無罪を主張。被告の関与を直接示す証拠はなく、被告が犯人かどうかが最大の争点だった。
　柴田裁判長は、３人が殺害された深夜から未明の時間帯に中田被告は自宅にいた一方、第三者が侵入した形跡はないと指摘。弁護側が主張する「外部からの侵入による犯行」を退けた。
　さらに、中田被告の左腕からは、抵抗した際に付着したとみられる妻のＤＮＡ型が検出されたことなどから、被告による殺害を認定。首を絞める行為を３回繰り返したとして強固な殺意を認め、「生命を軽視する態度は甚だしい」と非難した。
　動機については、育児や県警の昇任試験などをめぐる夫婦関係の悪化を挙げ、「鬱憤（うっぷん）を爆発させ、衝動的に犯行に及んだ」と述べた。
　その上で、「現職警察官が妻子３人を殺害したという衝撃的な事件で、社会的影響も軽視できない」と指摘。「慎重に検討しても、死刑を回避すべき事情を見いだすことはできない」と判断した。
　判決によると、中田被告は１７年６月５日深夜から６日未明にかけ、自宅１階で妻由紀子さん＝当時（３８）＝の首を絞めて殺害。２階寝室で小学４年の長男涼介君＝同（９）＝と小１の長女実優さん＝同（６）＝の首をひも状のもので絞め殺害した。（2019/12/13-18:31）

A Japanese district court on Friday sentenced a 41-year-old former police officer to death, as sought by prosecutors, for killing his wife and two children at their home in June 2017.
   "There is no margin for clemency, and his actions were extremely malicious," Presiding Judge Toshihiro Shibata at Fukuoka District Court said. The defense side immediately filed an appeal.
   The accused, Mitsuru Nakata, has consistently claimed his innocence, saying that the murder charges against him are "completely false." No direct evidence showing Nakata's involvement in the murders has been found.
   According to the ruling, Nakata choked his 38-year-old wife, Yukiko, to death on the first floor of their home in the city of Ogori, Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, between the late evening of June 5, 2017, and the small hours of the following day. He strangled the couple's nine-year-old son, Ryosuke, an elementary school fourth-grader, and six-year-old daughter, Miyu, a first-grader, with a string-like material in a bedroom on the second floor of the house, the ruling said.
   The judge said that Nakata was at his home at the time the murders were committed and that there were no traces of an intruder entering the family's home, rejecting the defense side's claim of an outside killer. The judge recognized that Nakata committed the crime, noting that on his left arm was the wife's DNA, believed to have been left as she struggled against him.