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	Hell's Bells Ring in Justice for Pervert Pastor Mainichi [Japan] March 1, 2006 http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/news/20060301p2g00m0dm004000c.html All the prayers in the world were not going to help the religious pastor who called himself Paolo Nagata when the Kyoto District Court handed down its verdict against him, according to Shukan Gendai (3/11). "These crimes stand alone in the annals of sex crime for their extreme maliciousness," Presiding Judge Takeshi Uegaki said as he convicted Nagata of seven counts of rape and ordered him to serve 20 years in jail. Nagata, better known by his real name of Tamotsu Kin, was found guilty of repeatedly violating girls at various times starting from around March 2001 until his arrest last year. "He used his position as leader of his church to tell the girls they would go to Hell if they did not do as he told them, then forced himself upon them. All the seven girls he raped were virgins and at least one of them was still in elementary school," a reporter for a national newspaper tells Shukan Gendai. "He did not say a word of apology to the victims throughout his trial, so it was only natural that he was sent away for as long as prosecutors wanted him behind bars." A man identified only as Mr. A tells the weekly he shared a nearby cell in the Kyoto Detention Center, where Kin was held until his trial ended. "Visitors used to bring him lots of religious books, but he also received lots of dirty magazines, too," Mr. A tells Shukan Gendai. "He says that he only raped one of the girls who claimed he had violated them. The other six, he said, had only accused him because they wanted his church's money. (All the victims have sued Kin for compensation)." Kin sent a number of letters to friends and supporters during his stint in remand. Judging by this correspondence, he apparently showed little remorse during that time, either. "If I didn't know Jesus Christ, I would never have been able to forgive all those people who put me in here and my hate and desire for vengeance would stop me from sleeping at night," the weekly quotes a letter from Kin to a female acquaintance as saying. "It's those people (his accusers) who deserve pity, not me. Every day I pray to God to save them." Despite the apparent piousness, however, Mr. A tells a different tale. "He loved going to brothels and was always bragging about a famous knocking shop in Kawahara, Kyoto Prefecture, where he was a regular. 'There're lots of nubile young girls there and many are to my liking. I visited the brothel twice a week without fail,' I remember him saying. I can also remember him bragging about how he used to spend his days in the brothel, eat pricey sushi at a posh restaurant, then wile away the twilight hours playing around in (the Kyoto entertainment district of) Gion before going back to Kawahara at night for more time in the brothel," Mr. A tells Shukan Gendai. Kin's former remand center inmate buddy says that the perverted pastor deliberately used to target hostesses. "He used to brag about driving around in a red Porsche because he reckoned it was the best weapon he could have when trying to seduce a hostess," Mr. A says. "He once told me he wished he frequented brothels more often. He said if he'd known how he was going to end up jailed, he would have gone to even more sex joints and ate at more fancy restaurants." Members of a support group for Kin's victims are not amused. "What came out in court was not the truth, but merely confirmation that the victims now have somewhere to hide," Hisoka Murakami, pastor at the Kyoto Assembly Church and head of a victims' support group, tells Shukan Gendai. "We'd really like to see Kin speak truthfully about what happened so the children he hurt can make the quickest possible recovery." (By Ryann Connell)
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