Her nose broken, her face bruised and bleeding internally, Kaori Mihashi sought protection at a shelter in Tokyo in June 2005. She told officials there her injuries were the result of repeated assaults by her husband in their upscale Tokyo condo.

Eighteen months after that frantic getaway, Mihashi, who had returned to live with her husband after spending several weeks at the shelter, slammed a wine bottle against his head as he slept. She then cut his corpse into five chunks and disposed of them around the capital.

"My husband began beating me in April 2003, about a week after we got married," the 33-year-old said last month when she took the stand for the first time in her Tokyo District Court trial for killing Yusuke Mihashi and dismembering his body.