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Disgraced former TV personality Masashi Tashiro, who previously evaded imprisonment after he was found guilty of using drugs, was ordered to spend 3 1/2 years behind bars on Monday for again using stimulants and injecting drugs into his girlfriend.

The Tokyo District Court convicted Tashiro, 48, of possessing and using stimulants in violation of the Stimulants Control Law. Prosecutors had demanded he be imprisoned for 4 1/2 years.

"Even though he was on probation after being handed a suspended sentence, the defendant used stimulants and also injected them into his girlfriend, thereby spreading harm to her," Judge Tetsuo Kamioka said as he handed down the ruling. "He is addicted to illegal drugs."

Tashiro used stimulants and injected drugs into a 38-year-old woman at a hotel in Nakano-ku, Tokyo, in September 2004, according to the ruling. He committed the crime while he was on probation after receiving a suspended prison sentence in February 2002 for using stimulants.

Tashiro has been implicated in several crimes. In December 2000, he was slapped with a 50,000-yen fine for filming up the skirt of a woman in Tokyo. He was arrested in December 2001 for peeping into the bathroom of a Tokyo house. In February 2002, he was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for using stimulants.

During an earlier court hearing, Tashiro said he is ready to be jailed. "I think it natural that I'll be jailed. I've abandoned the idea of making a comeback as an entertainer or living with my family. (After being released from prison,) I'd like to work as an ordinary citizen."

Hiroyuki Shinoda, managing editor of the monthly magazine "So," who regularly visited Tashiro at the detention center, quoted the defendant as saying that he wants to study social welfare in prison. (Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Japan, Feb. 7, 2005)

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