A three-year-old girl has starved to death in Japan after her mother left her alone for eight days so she could go and visit her boyfriend 600 miles away.
Saki Kakehashi, 24, from Tokyo, told police she did not expect her daughter Noa to die of severe dehydration and hunger.
The divorcée said she thought ‘it would be alright’ to leave the child alone in their apartment in the city’s Ota Ward, The Japan Times reported.
Kakehashi was visiting her lover in Kagoshima Prefecture on Kyushu island at the country’s southern most tip, an almost two hour flight away from Tokyo
Kakehashi was arrested on Tuesday, almost a month after she had arrived home on June 13 to find her daughter unresponsive in the apartment.
The girl was found to be wearing a nappy which had not been changed for days and had rashes on her bottom.
The apartment was also filled with rubbish.
An autopsy found that the toddler had thymic atrophy, a typical symptom of abused children, and her stomach was empty, a source told the Times.
Kakehashi is said to have claimed at first that Noa had been ill for several days but that she did not have the funds to take her to hospital.
However, she has since admitted to the allegations against her.
According to Noa’s nursery, the girl had not attended for more than a year.
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