TOKYO: A Japanese court sentenced a US marine to seven years in prison, a spokesperson for the judiciary said Wednesday, in the latest sexual assault case involving American military personnel.
Jamel Clayton, 22, who pleaded not guilty, was accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s last year in Okinawa, according to Kyodo News and other local media.
The Naha District Court on Tuesday sentenced Clayton to seven years in jail for “the crime of causing injury by attempting to have non-consensual sexual intercourse,” a spokesman for the court said.
Presiding judge Kazuhiko Obata described Clayton’s behavior as “so dangerous that it could have threatened her life, and highly malicious,” Jiji Press reported.
Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison term.
