It was a classic crime of passion: a bored husband walking out on his marriage, his spurned wife so enraged by the desertion that she was driven to kill him. The murder, in May, was swift and cold-blooded but justice is inexorable.

The perpetrator, a piano teacher from the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, sits in police custody awaiting charges that could send her to jail for years.

One thing sets this apart from the standard crime passionel, however: it happened in a virtual world to online characters in an interactive game. But the legal consequences for the “killer” are being played out in the real world.

Police in Sapporo, northern Japan, were questioning the unnamed 43-year-old woman yesterday for logging on to the account of a fellow participant in the game and “killing” his avatar — or online character — after he had “divorced” hers.

She is being investigated on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data, a crime punishable with up to five years in prison or a fine of up to £3,160.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning,” the police quoted her as saying. “That made me so angry.” The woman, has not yet been indicted formally, although in Japan few suspects who are arrested escape criminal charges.

The ill-starred couple met in the interactive game MapleStory, which originated in South Korea, and now has more than 50 million players across the world. It has generated 12 international versions, including ones in Chinese, Portuguese and Vietnamese, as well as a Japanese cartoon.

Players download free online software and create an avatar who moves through a fantasy world, defeating monsters and interacting with other characters.

“Players travel to unique places, such as the warrior village of Perion, the bowman town of Henesys, Kerning City, home of thieves, and the magician’s village of Ellinia,” the introduction to MapleStory Europe says.

Characters can work together in groups and socialise in “guilds”. Players can pay online to acquire accessories for their avatar, including pets and even shops. And, as the victim discovered to his cost, they can marry.

“Your character is unique and can be decorated according to your very own taste and style,” the game explains. “You can change their face, hairstyle and even have plastic surgery! . . . You’ll scream with delight!”

During their honeymoon period the man made the mistake of sharing his log-in information with his “wife”, making it a simple thing for her to access his account and eliminate his character.

Such was the pain of losing his painstakingly crafted avatar to a virtual bunny boiler that the unnamed victim, a 33-year old office worker, reported her to the police.

Online crime

— A Chinese man was arrested in Japan in 2005 on suspicion of carrying out a virtual mugging spree in the online game Lineage II and exchanging the stolen virtual goods for real cash

— Last year an animated character in Second Life, the popular online fantasy world, “raped” another character

— A Dutch teenager was charged last November with the virtual theft of furniture from rooms in Habbo Hotel, an online social networking site

Source: Times archives

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