The parents of a 16-year-old boy who decapitated a playmate two years ago in the south-eastern city of Kobe must pay 104 million yen (pound;540,000) to the victim’s family, a court has ruled.

The killer, now in a juvenile reformatory in Tokyo, had already attacked four children earlier that year, killing one of them.

He decapitated his 11-year-old victim, placed a sinister note in the mouth and then impaled the head at his school gates.

“The boy was fully capable of recognising his responsibility for the crime, and his parents, as guardians, were responsible for his supervision,” said Judge Nobuatsu Morimoto, who handed down the decision.

Technically the killer, who cannot be named, is also responsible for paying compensation to his victim’s family.