A 50-year-old woman admitted in a Japanese court to threatening her 42-year-old female roommate and forcing her to sew her own lips shut with a needle and thread. The woman, identified as Masae Sakurai, admitted to the charges during the first hearing of her trial at the Shimotsuma branch of the Mito District Court in Ibaraki prefecture, near Tokyo, on November 11, The Straits Times reported .
However, the victim allegedly angered Sakurai by eating food without her permission, leading to the incident. (Also Read: South Carolina man arrested for leaving sleeping 6-year-old daughter in line for Pokémon cards )
The prosecutors said in their opening statement that the victim had skipped meals after Sakurai told her that “those who do not work shall not eat”.
Sakurai had denied the allegations when she was arrested earlier this year in June, but admitted the charges during Wednesday’s hearing.
How did the victim escape?
She allegedly threatened the victim, telling her, “If you let me do it, the pain will double. Sakurai had been living with the victim at the time of the alleged incident. However, prosecutors decided in October not to indict her on that charge.
Sakurai intimidated her roommate and forced her to sew her own lips shut at some point between June 18 and 24, according to the indictment. Sakurai was initially arrested on June 29 on suspicion of sewing her roommate’s lips shut herself, an allegation she denied.
The 42-year-old woman managed to escape from the house in the city of Koga and rushed to a nearby shop, where she held up a piece of paper reading “please help me”, according to AFP. The injured woman reportedly told police, “The suspect became angry over a trouble and my lips were sewed.
