Nozomu Shinozaki, a 22-year-old student, died after a three-hour beating by nine fellow Japanese at the West Auckland Columbus Academy, a depositions hearing in the North Shore District Court was told yesterday.
The nine, aged between 17 and 26, face charges of murdering Mr Shinozaki on February 26. They also face
charges of assault and kidnapping.
The director of the academy, Katsuo Kanamori, also known as Soon Keuk Kim, is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Some of the defendants' families were sitting in the back of the Albany court, as were representatives of the Japanese Consulate in Auckland.
Prosecutor Margaret Rogers told the hearing that conditions at the Columbus Academy were squalid and overcrowded.
She said it was home to Japanese youths with behavioural problems sent to New Zealand by wealthy parents embarrassed at their behaviour.
The parents were desperate to get the youths off their hands and were willing to pay large sums to Kanamori, who portrayed the academy as a wonderful facility which achieved wonderful results with the students.
"The Crown says he was simply running a boarding house," said Miss Rogers.
She said that when spoken to by the police, all nine defendants admitted taking part in the beating of Mr Shinozaki.
But the summary of facts read to the court by Miss Rogers and translated by interpreters was challenged by a lawyer acting for the nine, John Haigh, QC, who was also acting for Kanamori.
Mr Haigh said that "somewhere out there" was a jury who would ultimately hear the allegations. He needed to say the summary was prepared by the police and was plainly wrong.
Mr Haigh denied that the students had been living in squalor and were an embarrassment to their families.
He said Kanamori and his staff did not know beforehand that Mr Shinozaki was to be beaten and each of the defendants strenuously denied the allegations against them.
"A number of statements the police took from the defendants are challenged in a number of ways," said Mr Haigh.
The hearing, being held to determine if there is enough evidence to send the defendants to trial, got off to a slow start yesterday as the court grappled with softly spoken Japanese interpreters and a sound system whose volume could not be turned up.
"You will just have to shout as if you are at a football match," presiding justice of the peace Don Chapman told one of the woman interpreters.
Later on she jumped with fright as a printer in the courtroom next to her and a witness whirred suddenly into life.
After a formal reading of the charges against the 10 defendants, Miss Rogers said Kanamori arrived in New Zealand in 1994. Some time in the late 1990s he opened the Columbus Academy in West Harbour Drive, to capitalise on a niche market providing facilities for students with behavioural problems from wealthy Japanese families.
He could gross $36,000 a student per year but the conditions the students lived in were squalid and they received little or no supervision.
Mr Shinozaki arrived at the academy in 1998 having received mental health care in Japan. He suffered from a form of autism.
Miss Rogers said that in New Zealand his care ceased and numerous problems - petty thefts and minor arsons not reported to the police - resulted at the academy.
About 12.05am on February 26 Mr Shinozaki was escorted to a meeting in the academy's music studio attended by all the defendants but Kanamori.
Miss Rogers said that over the next three hours Mr Shinozaki was subjected to individual and group beatings.
She said that, in pain, Mr Shinozaki begged for forgiveness for his wrong doing.
"As some defendants grew tired they would step back to allow other defendants to carry on with the assault."
She said that when the police were called Kanamori instructed everybody present to not answer their questions.
The case
The defendants are Kazuhiro Sato, Ryu Fukushima, Ryuji Hiraki, Hidetaka Nishide, Masato Fujita, Motomu Kobori, Daisuke Fukuda, Tomohisa Kato and Nobu Oshima.
They are each charged with murdering Nozomu Shinozaki, assaulting and kidnapping him.
The director of the Columbus Academy, Katsuo Kanamori, also known as Soon Keuk Kim, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The hearing, expected to last between two and three weeks, is at the North Shore District Court at Albany.
Nozomu Shinozaki, a 22-year-old student, died after a three-hour beating by nine fellow Japanese at the West Auckland Columbus Academy, a depositions hearing in the North Shore District Court was told yesterday.
The nine, aged between 17 and 26, face charges of murdering Mr Shinozaki on February 26. They also face
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