A man was sentenced to hang yesterday for stabbing to death eight children in a Japanese elementary school in a rampage that shocked the nation. The attack on the school in western Japan two years ago was unprecedented in scale and severely shook the national sense of security, already battered by a series of senseless crimes.

Mamoru Takuma, 39, an unemployed man who had previously received treatment for mental illness, pleaded guilty to the killings and to injuring 13 other children and two teachers at Ikeda elementary school near Osaka.

Seven girls and a boy between the ages of six and eight were killed by Takuma in June 2001 when he burst into their classroom and started slashing at random with a long knife. ?I think my daughter in heaven will be relieved by the verdict,? one child?s father said at the court.

Presiding Judge Masayuki Kawaai, quoted by media as saying the crime was one of the most heinous in Japanese history, added: ?He was frustrated economically and socially, and turned this anger on society.?

When Takuma was told to stand for sentencing, he burst out: ?Since I?ll get the death penalty, let me speak one last time. I?ve been quiet up to now,? NHK television said. The judge ordered him removed from the courtroom before the sentence was read, and Takuma shouted at the families in the gallery as he left.

?I cried when I heard the verdict,? said Yosuke Kawakami, the teacher of five of the eight children killed. ?I thought I can now tell the children that a bad man will be put to death. But the fact that I was unable to do anything (to help them) is a burden I will have to live with.?

Elaine Lies