Staff writer

A quarter-century after Etsuko Yamada made what many believe was a false confession to murdering a child, the Osaka High Court will hand down its second ruling in the Kabutoyama case next week.

Yamada was 22 in 1974 when she was charged with slaying a child whose body was found in a septic tank on the property of Kabutoyama Gakuen, a school for mentally disabled children in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, where she was employed.