Kyodo News

JAPAN:Hokkaido child killer gets life as court overturns death sentence

The Sapporo High Court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence handed down against a man for killing two children and injuring another in a burglary in 2001 in southern Hokkaido, but sentenced him to life in prison.

Kazuyuki Oikawa, 26, was found guilty of fatally stabbing the siblings, aged 2 and 5, and injuring another, 7, in August 2001 when robbing a house in the town of Hiroo, Hokkaido. He had appealed the death sentence handed down by the Obihiro branch of the Kushiro District Court in March 2002.