発信箱：特別な被害者＝磯崎由美

(Mainichi Japan) September 9, 2009
Sex crime victims' courage to speak out may have led to severe sentence by lay judges
発信箱：特別な被害者＝磯崎由美

Mika Kobayashi, who has publicly come out as a victim of a sex crime and told the public about her experience, recently sat in the gallery of the Aomori District Court to observe the first trial of a sex crime case in which lay judges participated.
　全国で初めて性犯罪を審理した青森地裁の裁判員裁判を、小林美佳さん（３３）と傍聴した。ほとんどの人が声を上げられない中、小林さんは被害を実名で公表し、性被害に遭うということがどんなことかを伝えてきた。

One of the victims in the case that was being tried at the court expressed her opinions to professional judges as well as citizen judges from a separate room through a TV monitor. Her voice was quavering.
　別室にいる被害女性Ａさんがモニターを通して意見陳述を始めた。涙で声が震える。

"It's tough because I've drawn attention from the public because lay judges are participating in my trial. But I dared to come to the courtroom because I wanted to communicate my pain to the public," the victim said in her statement.
「裁判員裁判だからと注目されて、すごくつらい。それでも法廷に来たのは、この苦しみをどうしても伝えたかったからです」。

Kobayashi was also weeping as she obviously remembered her experience.
小林さんも自分の事件の記憶がよみがえり、声を殺して泣いていた。

"Would you like to leave?" I asked Kobayashi in a note I handed to her.
私は筆談で「外に出ますか」と伝えた。

"The victim is also trying hard to endure it," Kobayashi replied in declining.
彼女は首を小さく横に振り、こう書いた。「Ａさんが頑張っているんです」

Some people involved in the trial questioned prosecutors' description of the sexual assault, pointing out it was "excessively detailed."
　法廷で性暴力の詳細を明らかにした検察側を「そこまで言う必要があるのか」と疑問視する声もあった。
過剰と思える表現があったのは確かだ。

However, Kobayashi rejected the claim. "If you say such painful facts should not be described that far, then I can't help but have mixed feelings as a person who bears the burden of similar experiences. It'd make it increasingly difficult to talk about one's experience of falling victim to sex crimes," she said.
でも小林さんは悲しそうに言った。「そこまで言う必要がない痛々しい事実。そう言われると、その事実を背負って生きる者としては複雑です。性被害はますます語れないものになってしまう」

The two victims in the Aomori case still fear that their colleagues might find out that they fell victim to sex crimes. A society in which people fear that those surrounding them may discover that they are the victims in the cases and hesitate to report the incidents to police could be seen as only encouraging such crimes.
　どうして性被害は犯罪被害の中でも特別な存在になってしまうのだろうか。青森の事件の被害者は２人とも、事件のことを同僚に知られないかとおびえて暮らしているという。周囲の目を恐れ、警察に届け出ることもしづらい社会は、加害者が犯行を重ねていくのに都合よくできているとさえ思える。

The defendant in the Aomori case was sentenced to 15 years in prison, as demanded by prosecutors, apparently because the victims' courage to speak out about the incident appealed to the lay judges.
　求刑通り懲役１５年の判決になったのは、勇気を振り絞り出廷した被害者の力だろう。

One of the citizen judges told reporters after the ruling, "Rulings on past similar cases appeared too lenient in my view."
裁判員の一人は記者会見で「従来の判決が低すぎたと感じた」と言った。

The lay judges' sincere attitude toward the trial could raise questions about whether judicial authorities had previously underestimated the graveness of sex crimes. (By Yumi Isozaki, Lifestyle News Department)
裁判員の真摯（しんし）さに思った。司法は性犯罪を軽く見てはいなかったかと。（生活報道部）

毎日新聞　2009年9月9日　東京朝刊