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#1
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TOKYO -- A British language teacher whose naked body was found in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo was beaten and then suffocated, police said Thursday, as authorities handed the woman’s body to her father.
Police are still hunting for the prime suspect, the 28-year-old Japanese male resident of the apartment in Ichikawa city east of the capital where Lindsay Ann Hawker’s body was found Monday. An autopsy conducted Wednesday determined that Hawker, 22, was beaten and suffocated, said police official Takeo Terajima. Terajima said he had no information on whether Hawker had been sexually assaulted. The suspect first approached Hawker near a train station March 21, saying he wanted to learn English and followed her to her apartment, said police officer Akira Ebihara. Hawker let him in because she had a roommate and he seemed eager to learn, Ebihara said. The suspect drew a picture of Hawker and wrote down his name and phone number before leaving her apartment, Ebihara said, adding that Hawker agreed to give him an English lesson Sunday. The suspect, who is still at large, fled past police officers Monday as they were questioning his neighbors. William Hawker, who is in Japan to receive his daughter’s body, tearfully told reporters Wednesday that he would not rest until the suspect is caught. ”My daughter didn’t come here to be murdered. She came here to help people, she came here to teach,” he said. ”I will not rest till the man who killed my daughter is caught.” The case comes amid the trial of a Japanese businessman accused of raping and fatally drugging British bar hostess Lucie Blackman in 2000. Joji Obara, 54, has been charged with rape leading to the death of Blackman. Prosecutors allege Obara gave her a fatal drug overdose and raped her before dismembering her body. Blackman was working at a Tokyo night club when she disappeared. Her remains were found near Obara’s beachside condominium near the capital in 2001. http://news.bostonherald.com/interna...ticleid=191669 |
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#2
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Profile: Lindsay Ann Hawker
Like many other young graduates, 22-year-old Lindsay Ann Hawker travelled to Japan to experience ex-pat life and earn money while teaching English. The "popular" former Leeds University student left her home in Brandon, near Coventry, in October last year and headed for a job with teaching company Nova, at Koiwa school in Tokyo. But, just five months after her arrival, her body has been found in a bath full of sand on the fourth-floor balcony of an apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, east of the capital. She had been reported missing on Monday by her employers after she failed to answer her mobile phone when her flatmate called. Tributes Miss Hawker's father, Bill, and boyfriend, Ryan Garside, have travelled to Tokyo to officially identify her body. Since hearing of her death, those in her home county of Warwickshire who knew Miss Hawker have been delivering flowers and paying tribute. A neighbour near the family home described her as "a lovely girl" and told how Miss Hawker once helped her find her pet cat. George Fisher, head teacher of King Henry VIII's School, in Coventry, which Miss Hawker attended until four years ago, said she was fondly remembered. "I knew Lindsay well," he said. "She was a very popular student and the school and staff are devastated. "I have been giving the news to staff who taught her." There were no plans to close the school, he added, but staff and pupils would be remembering Miss Hawker. After leaving school, she went to Leeds University, graduating in 2006, and then travelled to Japan. 'Dedicated' A spokeswoman from the Nova language school in London said Miss Hawker started teaching in Tokyo at the end of October last year. "Lindsay took her job very seriously and put every effort into it," the spokeswoman said. "She was trying very hard to get used to Japan. We are very sorry that this incident has taken place." Messages posted on the Facebook internet site, used by Miss Hawker to communicate with friends and family, had several messages from her to her boyfriend, Mr Garside, from Durham. The last was on 20 March and described how she had been followed home. The final line reads: "Love u lots dont worry abt the gut (guy) who chased me home, its jus crazy Japan. miss u xxx." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6502219.stm |
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#3
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How do you get enough sand to fill a bathtub up to the 4th floor?
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Unless I'm posting a link, This is, of course, just my opinion... ...If you don't talk to your cat about catnip, who will??? |
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#4
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Slain Briton's father appeals for information
CHIBA -- The father of a British woman whose body was found in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment near Tokyo appealed for information on her death, tearfully telling a news conference Wednesday he will not rest until the suspect is caught. The naked body of English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, was found buried Monday in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of an apartment in Ichikawa city, just east of the Japanese capital. Police are hunting for the apartment's 28-year-old Japanese male resident. "My daughter didn't come here to be murdered. She came here to help people, she came here to teach," Hawker's father, William, told reporters in Chiba, near Ichikawa, wiping away tears with a handkerchief. "I will not rest till the man who killed my daughter is caught," he said, appealing to the Japanese public to come forward with any information that might aid the investigation. The dead Briton's father, who spoke with police after arriving in Japan early Wednesday, was accompanied by Hawker's boyfriend, Ryan Garside. "She was the best thing in my life," a distraught Garside said at the press conference, adding he had planned to ask Hawker to marry him. Authorities are still investigating the cause of Hawker's death. The Japanese man, who local media said had recently asked Hawker to give him private English lessons, fled past police officers Monday as they were questioning his neighbors and has not been found. The chain of language schools that Hawker worked for, Nova, reported her missing to police Monday after her British roommate called to say she had not arrived home from work and could not be reached on her cell phone. The case comes ahead of a verdict in the trial of a Japanese businessman accused of raping and fatally drugging British bar hostess Lucie Blackman in 2000. Joji Obara, 54, has been charged with rape leading to the death of Blackman. Prosecutors claim Obara gave her a fatal drug overdose and raped her before dismembering her body. Blackman was working at a Tokyo night club when she disappeared. Her remains were found near Obara's beachside condominium near the capital in 2001. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/nation...na004000c.html |
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#5
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Slain Briton caught on Japanese security camera
TOKYO – A 22-year-old British woman found dead in a bathtub full of sand near Tokyo last week was caught on a cafe security camera minutes before police believe she was killed, Japanese media said on Monday. Video pictures broadcast by Japanese television showed English teacher Lindsay Hawker dressed in white and talking to a man media identified as 28-year-old Tatsuya Ichihashi, whom police are seeking in connection with her death. Three members of the cafe's staff remembered seeing 'a very beautiful foreign woman,' broadcaster NTV said. Hawker and Ichihashi were then caught on another camera getting into a taxi, apparently headed for his house nearby, NTV said. Hawker is thought to have given Ichihashi an English lesson at the cafe and then agreed to stop off at his apartment before heading for work at a language school, media reports said. Relatives have said that Hawker felt safe in Japan, where violent crime is comparatively rare. The victim's naked and bruised body was found buried in a bathtub full of sand on the balcony at Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa city a week ago. She was apparently suffocated. Ichihashi, who lived alone, fled barefoot when police arrived to question him after Hawker was reported missing by a friend. On Sunday, the victim's father pleaded through the British Ambassador Graham Fry for information on the suspect's whereabouts, saying the killer had 'brought shame on Japan.' 'So, as a father, I appeal to you – if anyone can help the police to find my daughter's killer, I beg you to come forward,' William Hawker said in a statement. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/w...n-killing.html |
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#6
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If you have something like this and there`s a elevator in that appartment complex, i bet it could be pretty quickly done... |
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#7
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Suspect in murder of British woman believed to have fled on bicycle
CHIBA -- The leading suspect in the murder of a British woman is thought to have fled the area on his bicycle, police said. Officers investigating the case on Wednesday found that a bicycle owned by the 28-year-old man, Tatsuya Ichihashi, from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, was missing. They suspect that after murdering 22-year-old British language teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker, Ichihashi used the bicycle, which he probably had left near Gyotoku Station on the Tozai subway line, to flee on the night of March 26. Officers arrived at his apartment at about 9:40 p.m. on that day. Soon after they questioned him, Ichihashi left the apartment and ran in the direction of Gyotoku Station. Police dogs traced his scent to near the station before it disappeared. Local sources said that Ichihashi often rode his bicycle between his apartment and the station. http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/nation...na024000c.html |
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#8
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Inquest held into teacher's death
An inquest has been opened and adjourned into the death of a teacher found buried in a bath of sand in a Tokyo apartment. The body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English language teacher from Brandon, near Coventry, was found on 27 March. She had been beaten and strangled. Police said her body was flown into Heathrow Airport on Tuesday evening. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Tatsuya Ichihashi, who fled the apartment when police arrived. Ms Hawker's father has flown to Japan to appeal to the public for help in catching his daughter's killer. CCTV images showing her with the man suspected of killing her have been broadcast on Japanese television. It is believed Miss Hawker had gone to 28-year-old Mr Ichihashi's apartment for the first time on 25 March to teach him English. The security camera footage shown on television was taken at a cafe earlier in the day. A spokeswoman for Warwickshire Police said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was keeping the Hawker family updated on the progress of the Japanese police investigation. Warwickshire coroner Michael Coker opened and adjourned the inquest into her death at Leamington Spa Town Hall. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/6530889.stm |
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#9
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Reported stalking cases likely just tip of iceberg
Teacher's murder shines light on ordeal faced by thousands of women in Japan The day started like any other. The alarm clock rang at 7 a.m. and Laura Fitch, a Canadian then 28 years old, made her sleepy-eyed way to the shower to freshen up before brewing her first coffee of the day. About 10 minutes later, as soon as she turned off the water, the phone in her Tokyo apartment started ringing -- a sound that she would soon become all too familiar with. Fitch had only given her land-line number to family members and close friends overseas, so she quickly dried herself off and rushed to catch the call. "A whiny male voice asked me in Japanese if I was Laura," Fitch recalls of the morning two years ago. "I was tired, I wasn't thinking about who he could be, and I answered yes. "Then he said, 'Is this the Laura that lives at such and such an address?' and I said yes again. Then he said, 'You just got out of the shower, right? ' " Fitch explains, adding that she had a small window in her bathroom that looked out to the front of her building. "At that point I clued in and freaked out. I hung up immediately, checked my locks and called my friend who lived next door." From that day, every day until Fitch left Japan 10 months later, she was bombarded with phone calls. Her privacy was invaded and she feared for her safety. She was being stalked. Fitch didn't get her normal life back until she left Japan. And hearing two weeks ago about the murder of 22-year-old English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker -- allegedly by a man who had stalked her -- sent a chill down Fitch's spine and reopened mental scars. Last year, 12,501 stalking incidents were reported in Japan -- 90.4 percent of the victims were women, with 67.7 percent being between 20 and 39 years old, and the stalker was male in 89.7 of cases, according to Tokyo Metropolitan Police records. The number was a 2.3 percent increase compared with 12,220 reported cases in 2005. Quote:
Those numbers likely don't even scratch the surface. Eighty-three percent of stalking incidents in the U.S. are not reported to the police or other officials, according to a survey conducted in 2000 by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of 4,446 female students at 223 colleges and universities. Of the 83 percent of victims who did not make a report, 72 percent didn't think the incident was serious enough to report, 44.6 percent didn't know it was a crime and 33.6 percent didn't believe the police would take it seriously. After receiving her first freaky phone call, Fitch went straight to the police, who she says were "not too concerned" and told her they couldn't do anything because her stalker was "only phoning" her. She said the police patrolled her area a few times in the beginning, but that was about it. "There was a definite 'boys' club' feeling about the whole thing," Fitch says. "I was told that he was just a boy having fun, that I should change my number and forget about it. When the calls kept coming, they refused to do anything more to help me and started getting obstinate." So Fitch, an English teacher at the time, was left to cope on her own in a situation she was powerless to control -- a situation that can leave victims in a state of near-constant paranoia. Fitch says she was always on the lookout for strange behavior. She carried a Taser with her everywhere, she never listened to music while she was walking, she always tried to take different routes to and from work, and she alerted her colleagues and friends to the situation. "The first few days I was f---ing terrified," says Fitch. "I was constantly checking my lock and looking over my shoulder." "He would call all night, all day," she says. "I once took the phone off the hook for a whole two weeks, but it started ringing again within an hour after I replaced it." Stalking is an extreme symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder, a recognized mental illness, according to Dr. Chie Okuda, a Tokyo-based clinical psychologist. "People who are obsessive can't stop what they're doing," says Okuda. "It's also a sexual and hormonal issue that becomes a compulsion -- a driven state -- that affects their reasoning and can't be controlled. It's like a state of hunger. "Sexual or romantic attachment is a strong force in people's basic needs," says Okuda. "Needs for attachment are very basic. You crave things like food and sex. That's a basic driving force and can become heightened when you don't feel close to anyone. "People have to balance and inhibit their impulses all the time, but some people don't learn how to deal with frustrations in life," says Okuda. "Once they find something that catches their attention, and then add to that the stress level that they may feel at a particular time, that person may act upon it." Such may have been the case when 28-year-old Tatsuya Ichihashi, who remains at large, allegedly stalked and killed Hawker, a British Nova teacher, leaving her body in a bathtub of sand on his balcony in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. In the five years that records of stalking cases have been kept in Japan, 48 of the victims were murdered. The unpredictable nature of stalkers makes them especially threatening. Victims can never be certain when or how they will next encounter their stalker. The Journal of Forensic Sciences 2006 found that two-thirds of stalkers in cases across North America used more than one method of approaching or pursuing their victim daily or at least once a week. Seventy-seven percent of victims in the U.S. are telephoned, 47.9 percent are waited for, 44.6 percent are watched from afar and 42 percent are followed, according to the NIJ/BJS survey of post-secondary students. A Tokyo police report shows that last year in Japan, 54 percent of stalkers waited for and followed their victims, 53 percent pressured their victims to meet them and get to know them, and 31 percent called their victims on the telephone but did not say anything. The report states that the motive for 65 percent of stalkers was emotional attachment to the victim and 33 percent did it because of unreciprocated love, which means 98 percent of all reported cases were driven by feelings of desire. After a case is reported, police judge whether it is serious enough to warrant legal action. "It's a very sensitive issue," says Yasuo Sato, director of the Victim Support Center of Tokyo. "How much legal action is taken in each situation is left to the discretion of each individual police officer. "Usually, first police give the stalker a warning," says Sato, who is a former police officer. "In my experience, 90 percent of stalkers stop after a warning." Japan's Antistalking Law was enacted in 2000. According to the law, after the stalker carries out one of eight actions, such as following the victim home or calling the victim, the victim should file a report asking for the police to give a warning. After the warning, if the stalking continues, the chief of police at headquarters will give a final warning. If the stalker still doesn't stop, the Public Safety Commission examines the case. The PSC can then order prohibition of the stalker's actions. Finally, if the stalker fails to cease and is arrested, he or she could face up to a year in prison or a 1 million yen fine. In the early stages of a stalking incident, much of the onus is on the victim to prove the seriousness of the crime. "In the case of continual phone calls, the victim should record everything," says Sato. "They should tell the stalker that if they keep doing it, they'll call the police." Fitch did exactly that on the advice of a student who had read what to do on a Japanese antistalking Web site. "I got an extension to my tape recorder that allowed me to tape the telephone conversations," Fitch says. "Once I had it set up, I talked to him a bit to get something to take to the police. "I could hear him jacking off on the phone and he asked me if I had ever seen a Japanese penis and then he would proceed to blow his load," says Fitch. "I only stuck on the phone to give the cops more evidence, which they asked for. They said it's not a crime unless it's sexual. "However, that still wasn't enough for the police and they said that he had to want to date me," she says. "When I pressed them to open my phone records, which according to NTT they could do with a police or judge's warrant, they became less helpful and for some reason were really against doing it." Sato says if Fitch had gone to another police station, her request might have been granted. "The police should have taken action and I feel sorry for her because maybe the person in charge didn't do the right thing," says Sato. "Her stalker masturbated on the phone and I think maybe he was a little bit crazy. The police could have traced the call. "Victims should not hesitate to call our center because there is a lot we can do to help," says Sato. "If someone reports the incident to a police officer who doesn't take action, we can refer the victim to a good officer. We have a strong relationship with the police force and we also have interpretation services." Fitch was just one thousands in Japan last year who reported the often-faceless crime that can leave its victims feeling helpless and traumatized. In her case, leaving the country has helped put the painful experience behind her. The Antistalking Law in Japan is still relatively new, and perhaps many remain unaware of how dangerous stalkers can be. Hawker's murder was a brutal reminder of the seriousness of the issue -- and a wakeup call for the countless victims of stalkers who are suffering in silence. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0070410zg.html |
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#10
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English teachers private lessons sometimes a little too private
The tragic death last month of Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker has highlighted what a dangerous can of worms the English language private lesson caper can be, according to Shukan Post (4/20). Wealthy doctor's son Tatsuya Ichihashi is on a nationwide wanted list for the murder of 22-year-old Hawker, who he is reported to have lured into his clutches with the promise of paying her a hefty hourly sum for private English instruction. Private lessons are a lucrative option for struggling English teachers, the men's weekly says. "Most of the teachers work for English conversation schools and do private lessons as a part-time job. Schools only pay about 200,000 yen to 250,000 yen a month and a lot of the time their rent is taken out of that, so they really feel the pinch," an English conversation school insider tells Shukan Post. "For a private lesson, a teacher can make anywhere from about 3,000 yen to 6,000 yen an hour. Many take the teaching materials out of their schools, so whatever they make out of the lesson is theirs in full." But private lessons can also be perilous. "If my student is a male, I always make sure I give the lesson at a coffee shop near the station closest to their home. There was one time, though, when I was running late, so I asked the student to come to a caf? near my closest station. After the lesson finished I was getting ready to go home when the student told me he wanted to see what my home looked like. I couldn't shake him off, so he ended up learning where I lived. I was so scared, I ended up moving," a 26-year-old British woman teaching English tells Shukan Post. An American woman teaching English tells an even scarier tale of a creepy student she taught in a coffee shop. "There was no trouble at first, but from about our third lesson on, he started patting my hair and rubbing my shoulders. If a student complains about me to my school, I'll get fired. The student knew that and took advantage of it by becoming more daring all the time, putting his hand down my skirt and kneading my breasts," the woman says. "I told the school I couldn't handle it any more, but they just fired me." It's not always the teachers who fall foul of the system, though. A bank worker we'll call Fumi paid a Canadian man to give her private English lessons. He started by suggesting they watch a movie to get used to hearing English. Fumi agreed and they began watching "Superman Returns." "As soon as we sat down he put one of his arms around my shoulders and thrust the other one between my thighs. When I tried to move his hands away, he grabbed hold of my hand, tried to force it toward his crotch and said to me, 'I'm a Superman too, you know,' " Fumi tells Shukan Post. "When we got out of the movie theater, he had the hide to tell me that our lesson had gone into overtime and he wanted to be paid more for it. I paid him 5,000 yen for the cost of a single hour's lesson and never contacted him again." http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai...dm015000c.html |
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#11
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Japanese suspect in gruesome murder of British girl still at large
Tokyo police are under attack over their failure to solve another killing of a young British women - Lindsay Ann Hawker, whose bruised and strangled body was found last month in a sand-filled bath on the balcony of an apartment block. The chief suspect, Tetsuya Ichihashi, in whose apartment she was found, escaped from nine policemen in his stockinged feet and despite a huge manhunt, there has been no sign of him since. According to police, Ichihashi approached Ms Hawker in the street on March 21 and tried to strike up a conversation. He ran after her as she cycled to her flat nearby. Because her two English flatmates were at home, she agreed to let him in. "He drew a picture of her in felt-tip pen and gave it to her at the same time as he gave her his home address and phone number," said deputy superintendent Takeo Terajima. He said the suspect appeared to have been "obsessed" with the young Englishwoman. Ichihashi apparently gained her confidence by discussing biology, which she had studied at Leeds University until last year. He convinced her to give him an English lesson on the following Saturday and wrote his name and address on a slip of paper. That piece of paper led police to his home after her friends were unable to contact her by mobile phone and she failed to turn up for work. Officers found Hawker's body after Ichihashi escaped on foot. Ms Hawker was a 22-year-old English teacher from Brandon near Coventry. She is due to be buried on Thursday in Coventry Cathedral. There has been criticism of the police for allowing Ichihashi to escape. Tim Blackman, the father of Lucie Blackman, said that it echoed mistakes made in the investigation of the killing of his daughter. "I just know how devastated these people are and what a terrible problem it is going to be for them. It’s just a great shame that the guy got out the back door," he said. Mr Blackman spent months travelling to and from Japan trying to persuade Tokyo police to take his daughter's disappearance seriously. It was seven months before her dismembered body was found in a seaside cave, her head encased in a block of concrete nearby. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1698258.ece |
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#12
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CCTV images released in Japan bathtub murder
Japanese police have released new images of a man sought in connection to the murder of British teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker. Miss Hawker was found strangled in a bath of sand in the apartment of Tatsuya Ichihashi located east of Tokyo. The newly released images capture Mr Ichihashi in the elevator of his apartment block before Miss Hawker's murder and it is hoped their release will stir up more information from the public. A warrant was issued for the man's arrest after he fled his apartment when police came to question him in relation to Miss Hawker, who was missing at the time. Miss Hawker's father Bill Hawker flew out to Japan to identify her body when she was found and gave an impassioned appeal for information about the man who fled the scene. Mr Hawker said: "I believe my daughter was tricked into going to this man's apartment under the pretext of giving English lessons. "My daughter was a lovely girl, she would have helped anybody. And it was because she would help anybody she is where she is now." It is believed that Ms Hawker went to Mr Ichihashi's apartment to teach him English on March 25th. http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/heal...r-$1083089.htm |
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#13
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Teacher murder parents' TV plea
The parents of a British teacher found buried in a bath of sand in Tokyo have appealed for help in tracking down the killer. The body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English language teacher from Brandon, Warwickshire, was found in March. In a BBC News interview Lindsay's father, Bill, admitted the couple had not coped very well. Her mother, Julia, dismissed the idea her daughter had been teaching English to the suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi. Mr Ichihashi, 28, fled from his apartment - where Lindsay's body was found - when police arrived to question him. Video footage of him was released by Japanese police earlier this month. Post-mortem test results suggested Lindsay was strangled or asphyxiated. She had also suffered severe injuries to her face and arms. Her father told the BBC's Natasha Kaplinsky: "Some days you don't feel like surviving... We're just taking each day at a time." Mrs Hawker said the couple knew something was seriously wrong when they received a phone call from Japan after being unable to contact their daughter for some time. 'Beautiful inside' Mr Hawker said: "Lindsay never missed a shift for work... She always did her lesson plans the night before. "So why it took two days before she was reported missing we don't know... She rang us and e-mailed us every day." In the interview for BBC One's Six O' Clock News, Mr Hawker said: "Lindsay was a wonderful girl. She was beautiful to look at. She was beautiful from the inside. "She was highly intelligent. She'd got a first class degree. She loved education. She loved teaching. She helped so many people in her life... She fulfilled all our hopes and dreams." He said the couple had actively encouraged her to go to Tokyo because it was Westernised and had very low reported crime rates. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...re/6660033.stm |
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#14
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Beckett Appeals to Japanese Media in Hunt for Teacher's Killer
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett called on the Japanese media to give more coverage to the police search for the killer of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a British teacher found dead near Tokyo in March. Beckett made the appeal on behalf of Hawker's family after a meeting with Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso in Tokyo, where she is visiting to promote cooperation on efforts to reduce global warming. ``The family, I know, would wish me to ask the Japanese media to give more coverage to this very terrible and sad case in the hope that it will help bring the perpetrator to justice,'' she said. Japanese police are searching for Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, on suspicion he dumped Hawker's body in a sand-filled bathtub after her possible murder at an apartment in Ichikawa City, east of Tokyo, on March 26. Police issued a warrant for Ichihashi's arrest after he escaped from officers who called at his apartment on March 27. Police found Ichihashi's name and address in a memo in Hawker's room, according to media reports at the time. Hawker's case gained international attention for its resemblance to the death of Lucie Blackman, the British bar hostess whose dismembered corpse was found south of Tokyo in 2001. Japanese property developer Joji Obara was acquitted last month of all charges related to Blackman's death. He was sentenced to life in prison for raping and drugging nine other women, one fatally. Japanese police have maintained the number of officers assigned to the Hawker case at more than 100, a British official, who declined to be identified due to protocol reasons, said last week. There is no sign that the police are winding down their investigation, he said. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ko&refer=japan |
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#15
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Murder suspect father apologises
The father of the man suspected of killing Warwickshire teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker has told her family he hopes his son will "atone for his crime". Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, has not been seen since he fled the Tokyo apartment where Miss Hawker's body was found in a bathtub filled with sand in March. His brain surgeon father sent a message to Miss Hawker's parents via the Japanese detective leading the inquiry. UK police are also to fly to Japan to join in the investigation. Two officers will fly out to observe their Japanese counterparts following a request by Nuneaton MP Bill Olner for Prime Minister Tony Blair to intervene. 'So regrettable' Miss Hawker, 22, of Brandon, near Coventry, had travelled to Japan to teach English as a foreign language. Post-mortem test results suggested the Leeds University graduate was strangled or asphyxiated. She had also suffered severe injuries to her face and arms. The message from Mr Ichihashi's father said: "When we heard what had happened to your daughter we were at a loss and were shocked. "It is so regrettable this happened. "We wish to express our sorrow. We hope your daughter is at peace and that our son will atone for his crime as soon as possible." Miss Hawker's father Bill has called the message a "hollow gesture". Pictures and video footage of Mr Ichihashi have been widely circulated in Japan and photos of him can be seen at police stations across Tokyo. Mr Ichihashi fled from his apartment when police arrived to question him about the missing woman. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. CCTV images of the teacher with Mr Ichihashi, said to have been taken hours before her death, were broadcast on Japanese television in April. Coffee shop Video clips have also been released by Japanese Police appearing to show Miss Hawker and the suspect at a coffee shop hours before her death. Staff there said the conversation appeared to be a language lesson. Her parents have rejected that she was teaching Mr Ichihashi English and the possibility that she was in "any sort of" relationship with him. They had actively encouraged her to go to Tokyo because it was Westernised and had very low reported crime rates. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/c...re/6696179.stm |
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