PEEPING TOM PUT BEHIND BARS

Local Kurume man JinjinchiroTakibashi was sent to Tosu gaol for six months this morning for "attempting to further the photographic development of candid communication", in the no-nonsense words of Chief Justice Sho Nekochan.

Takibashi had climbed into the crawlspace above the ceiling of what he thought was the ladies toilets in City Hall, and was planning to make use of his newly acquired digital camera and microphone. Unfortunately for Takibashi, the ceiling couldn't support his weight, and he fell through the thin plaster. To make matters worse, he had unwittingly taken a wrong turn in the crawlspace and was in fact above an adjoining annex room, where members of Kurume Police Station were attending an inhouse lecture on criminal behaviour. Takibashi falling onto their table with his camera was unexpected but rather apt in the circumstances.

Despite claims that he was a construction worker checking the building for structural damage, Takibashi was unable to convince either the stunned officers or the Chief Justice, the latter of whom summed up sentencing with the decidedly tongue-in-cheek aside: "You would be advised to watch your own bottom as closely in the coming months, Mr Takibashi..."