Conviction Buddhist institutions and contexts Buddhist institutions and lineages Nottinghamshire / Hove, England, United Kingdom · 2022

United Kingdom: self-styled 'Buddha Maitreya' meditation-centre teacher convicted of indecently assaulting students' daughters

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

founder and teacher, Pure Land meditation centre (self-styled 'Buddha Maitreya')

Organization

Pure Land meditation centre, Nottinghamshire

Spiritual nexus

The judge's own sentencing remarks identify the mechanism directly: the victims' families trusted him as their spiritual teacher, and that trust — not mere proximity — is what he used.

Guru or spiritual-teacher authority
Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2022-09-22 · conviction and sentence

Hove Crown Court, England. Koji Takeuchi, who styled himself 'Buddha Maitreya' and ran a Pure Land meditation centre and Japanese garden in Nottinghamshire, was sentenced at Hove Crown Court to a total of 24 months (14 months concurrent for two Brighton-area indecent assaults on two girls aged about 12, plus 10 months consecutive), following an earlier October 2020 conviction for abusing a separate girl from ages 3 to 9. Sentencing judge Jeremy Gold told him the families 'looked to you for spiritual guidance and you repaid them by carrying out' the abuse.

Documented coercion mechanisms

position as the girls' family's spiritual teacher
access to students' children through the meditation centre and its associated Japanese garden retreat

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Buddhist monk jailed for sex attacks on girls', Brighton and Hove News (22 Sept. 2022).: Sentencing report at Hove Crown Court, including the judge's remarks on spiritual-guidance betrayal and the prior 2020 conviction.

Related record

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