© Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
The fake medical study involved "measuring blood pressure during sleep," AFP quoted the Japanese investigators as saying. The female victims came across the study through advertisements and agreed to willingly participate in what they believed to be research.
What the victims did not know, is that 54-year-old Hideyuki Noguchi was allegedly using sedatives that knocked the women unconscious in order to rape them. The perpetrator took victims to various hotels and resorts to conduct the trials and filmed each individual assault, according to police. Assaults took place over a two-year period, until November 2013.
All of the recorded videos were either uploaded to the Internet or sold for profit to porn sites. Noguchi made more than 10 million yen ($85,000) from his crimes, reported TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings) and other Japanese broadcasters.
A staggering number of women apparently fell victim to the scheme.
Media reports have put the total number of victims to be over 100. Some of the confirmed cases included at least 39 women from Tokyo, Chiba, Osaka, Tochigi and Shizuoka. The age range of the victims is believed to be from teenagers to 40-year-olds.
Detectives said that Noguchi did not actually possess any medical expertise.
I bet Japanese Secret Service hired him because of his ability to lie and manipulate, and by the looks of it he's a self-starter too.