Police served a fresh arrest warrant Friday to a 32-year-old South Korean man suspected of being behind a string of break-ins and rapes.
Song Chiyol, who has been in custody since July 16 in connection with the theft of a laptop computer, was served the new warrant in connection with robberies and sexual assaults at women's homes in Tokyo's Shinjuku and Toshima wards, after he started confessing to the crimes, police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that Song broke into the Toshima Ward apartment of a 35-year-old woman on April 5 and subdued her by choking her. He then blindfolded the woman with adhesive tape, bound her hands and feet with stockings and robbed her of 5,000 yen in cash before raping her, police alleged.
Song has started to indicate that he robbed and sexually assaulted women in about 19 homes and broke into about 40 others. The string of crimes started two summers ago in Tokyo. Most of the victims were women in their 20s, police said, noting that many were confronted by the intruder when they returned home.