A 76-year-old man who lived with his wife and several former wives in Tokyo has died a day before a court was to rule on a sexual assault case against him, police sources said Monday.
One of the women found the man, Hirohito Shibuya, unresponsive at his home in Higashiyamato, Tokyo, around 10:10 p.m. Sunday and called an ambulance, but he was pronounced dead about an hour later, according to the sources. He is believed to have committed suicide.
Shibuya was arrested on suspicion of constructive forcible sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 20 in February 2023, when he was living with his wife, eight former wives and three children.
On Dec. 23 last year, a former wife in her 40s who had been arrested for allegedly conspiring with Shibuya and charged with aiding and abetting his alleged sexual assault, also died at Shibuya's home in an apparent suicide.
According to the indictment, Shibuya sexually assaulted the girl at his home between mid-June and Dec. 12, 2022, by telling her that she would be eaten by aliens, weakening her resistance.
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