A 61-year-old former sanitation worker previously acquitted of murder was sentenced to life in prison March 27 for killing a woman with whom he had lived, and raping and trying to kill a 5-year-old girl in 1996.

Etsuo Ono committed "grave and atrocious" crimes and has shown no sign of remorse, presiding Judge Kaoru Kanayama said in handing down the sentence sought by public prosecutors. Ono was convicted of killing Yoshie Miyauchi, 41, in their apartment in Tokyo's Adachi Ward on Jan. 6, 1996, then burning her body and dumping the remains near his apartment.

In April 1996, he raped a kindergarten student who was playing in a park and tried to strangle her, according to the court. The defendant told the court he had no intention of killing either of the victims.

Ono's 1996 arrest shocked human rights activists who had helped him win acquittal in a 1974 murder case for which he served 16 years in prison. In 1991, Ono was released from prison after the Tokyo High Court overturned a life prison term imposed by a lower court and acquitted him of charges of the 1974 murder of a 19-year-old woman in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture.

Ono was convicted of larceny in Tokyo in 1992 and was released on parole in 1995. Judge Kanayama said the defendant's criminal behavior has worsened as he has become older, and "there is a good chance he would repeat such crimes in the future."