The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has dismissed a 52-year-old police sergeant for photographing 20 female corpses he examined and taking the image data home.

According to police, the police officer took the photos with his smartphone while working as a forensic investigator in the mortuaries at Akabane, Joto and Fuchu police stations between 2009 and 2022. Kyodo News reported that he photographed the nude bodies of 20 dead women he examined in the morgues and took approximately 480 images home.

The sergeant was arrested and indicted last September for attempting to secretly film up a woman's skirt at a train station in Saitama Prefecture. During the investigation, police searched his home and found an album containing photos of the female corpses among at least 730 work-related images.

Police quoted the man as saying his motive was to satisfy his sexual desires.