Tomita in camera theft U-turn
Print Edition
JAPANESE swimmer Naoya Tomita, who initially admitted to stealing a camera at the recent Asian Games and was issued a summary indictment, yesterday said an unknown man had put the stolen device in his bag.
The 25-year-old Tomita was suspended for 18 months by the country’s swimming federation and fired from his job after admitting to stealing a camera valued at 8 million won (US$7,361) from a journalist working for a South Korean news agency.
Accompanied by his lawyer, Tomita told a news conference in Nagoya that someone placed the camera, which was not fitted with a lens, in his bag and he confessed at the time because he feared he would not be allowed to return home.
“I didn’t steal the camera,” an ashen-faced Tomita told reporters. “I took it for a piece of rubbish and took it back to the athlete’s village. I didn’t have the strength to say I didn’t do it and stay in Korea. It’s my fault for having admitted it. The truth is different.”
The breaststroke specialist said the police showed him pictures of the security cameras on a smartphone and the images were not clear.
Tomita, who won the 200 meters breaststroke gold at the 2010 Asiad in Guangzhou and world championships in Dubai the same year, was expelled from the September 19-October 4 Games and told to pay his own way home. His employer, sports apparel manufacturer Descente, later fired him.
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