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Cop stabs himself to get leave
04/06/2007 18:15 - (SA)
Tokyo - A Japanese policeman, distressed by long working hours following a major earthquake, stabbed himself and claimed he was attacked by a stranger in an effort to take days off, police said on Monday.
The 44-year-old police inspector, whose name was withheld, used a fruit knife to wound his stomach at his apartment on May 23 in the coastal city of Kanazawa, about 300km northwest of Tokyo, police said.
"He told investigators, 'I was stabbed by an unknown man who came to see me,'" Ishikawa prefectural police said.
"But investigations showed that he stabbed himself."
A spokesperson for the prefectural police said the inspector was assigned to a section handling disaster management just days before a 6.9-magnitude quake the area on March 25, killing one person and injuring more than 200.
Nearly 900 buildings were damaged in the quake.
"He has confessed that he was busy every day in coping with the disaster and didn't feel like going to work," the spokesperson said by telephone.
"He also found it difficult to adjust to his new job."
Police are investigating the case as a minor offence, he added.
The inspector admitted to having made the false statement after he was released from hospital last Thursday.
- AFP
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