Iwakuni Marine to stand trial in alleged attack

[thedrifter]

Iwakuni Marine to stand trial in alleged attack


By Greg Tyler and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, December 21, 2003



An Iwakuni-based Marine will stand trial Jan. 15 in Yamaguchi District Court for attempted rape resulting in bodily injury. The alleged victim is a 53-year-old Japanese woman.

The trial date was announced Thursday.

The Yamaguchi Prefecture District Public Prosecutor?s Office indicted Pfc. William E. McIntosh, 22, an internal audit clerk with Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, for physically harming the woman last summer while she was walking home alone.

Prosecutors allege his intent was to rape her.

Capt. Stewart Upton, an Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station spokesman, verified the charge and trial date Friday.

If convicted, McIntosh could receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

McIntosh allegedly attacked the woman at about 3 a.m. on Aug. 1, a written indictment said. He?s accused of grabbing the woman by the neck to prevent her from resisting and then knocking her to the ground in a parking lot. He then allegedly hit the woman in the face but failed to rape her, the indictment said.

After releasing her, he allegedly followed the woman and hit her again in her face with his fist about one block away from the first assault.

She suffered bruises and other injuries, requiring about 24 days to heal, the indictment said.

?We are only aware of minor injuries sustained by the Japanese woman that she claims were caused by the Marine,? Upton said. ?However, further information released by local Japanese police or at the trial could state otherwise.?

McIntosh is being held in a jail outside Iwakuni, prosecutors said, declining to say where the facility is located.

He?s been in the jail since he was indicted Nov. 21, when the Marine Corps turned him over to Japanese authorities.

?Once the Japanese prosecutor?s office makes an indictment, they then follow up with an immediate request for transfer into Japanese custody,? Upton said. ?Under the Status of Forces Agreement, this request will be immediately granted and cannot be declined.

?In these types of cases, the accused is afforded Japanese legal representation at U.S. expense, an interpreter and a U.S. representative to serve as a legal proceedings observer.?

McIntosh?s hometown is Colorado Springs, Colo., where he graduated from high school. He?s married and has two young children.

He entered the Marine Corps on Dec. 6, 1999, and transferred to Iwakuni on Oct. 4, 2002. His awards and decorations include the National Defense Service and Good Conduct medals.

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Sempers,

Roger