Marine pleads guilty in Japan sex crime
A U.S. Marine pleaded guilty Friday to abusive sexual contact with a child under 16, bringing to a close a criminal case that stoked outrage in Japan, a Marine spokesman said.
Protesters turned out in March after the rape allegations surfaced. The Marine pleaded guilty to charges Friday.
The Marine Corps withdrew several other charges, including rape of a child, kidnapping and making a false official statement, Wilson said.
Japanese police arrested Hadnott in February on charges alleging that he raped a 14-year-old junior-high school student. He saw her while riding his motorcycle, offered to give her a ride and later assaulted her at a park, the police said then.
The case stirred outrage at the highest levels of the Japanese government.
The Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl withdrew her allegations, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation. The Marines charged Hadnott with rape of a child, abusive sexual contact, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping.
More than 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, most of them on Okinawa.
The U.S. military presence has at times bred resentment among locals, who have long complained about crime, noise and accidents. Anti-American sentiments boiled over in 1995, after three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. Two years ago, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women.
The Marine Corps said in a statement on Friday that it does not tolerate sexual assault.
"We remain committed to maintaining an environment that rejects sexual assault and attitudes that promote such behaviors," the statement said.