Thursday, 26 August 2010
By VIRGINIA WHEELER
COPS were last night probing the possibility that comic-book fan Ichihachi copied Lindsay’s grisly murder from a CARTOON story.
Police found piles of violent Japanese Manga comics at the suspect’s flat.
The weekly cartoon-books ? which are as popular as newspapers in Japan ? frequently feature stories of young women and schoolgirls being raped and tortured.
Lindsay told friends in Tokyo that she found the comics “disgusting”.
Her horrific death mimics a storyline used in Hentai Manga, a violent porn version of the books.
A police source last night said: “Ichihachi is clearly a Manga fan. He had a lot of books in his apartment and downloads of them on his computer.
“We are looking at the possibility that the horrible manner of Lindsay’s death ? the burying in a bath of sand ? is a copycat crime from one of these comics.”
Fellow English teachers Toby Wheeler, 30, said: “Lindsay, like most westerners, found them disgusting.
“They’re cartoon porn and Japanese men get a real kick out of them.
“The worst thing about Manga is that there is no comeuppance for the violent ?heroes’ in the stories.
“They commit these horrific rapes and murders, but there is no retribution.”
Ichihachi’s flat was bought for him by his wealthy parents. His father is a doctor and his mother a dentist.
Deputy Superintendent Takeo Terajima yesterday said he believed the fugitive would be caught quickly.
He said: “We are not sure where the suspect is at present. But we believe we will soon have him in custody.”
William Hawker’s face crumpled as he held up a picture of English teacher Lindsay, 22, whose body was found buried in a bath of sand in a Tokyo flat.
The English language teacher’s father visited her body at a funeral home and arrangements were being made for her to be returned to the UK.
A post-mortem was carried out on Miss Hawker by Chiba prefectural police yesterday, officials said.
Click here to see father's plea
The devastated dad ? who has flown out to Japan with his daughter’s boyfriend Ryan Garside ? said: “My heart is broken. I’m just a normal man ? I don’t expect this in my life.
“I’ll carry this picture of her forever. And I will not rest until the man who killed my daughter is caught.”
Cops believe naked Lindsay was battered then may have been smothered to death before being covered by the sand, with just one hand visible.
“There were two large bruises each the size of an egg on her face, which could indicate that she was punched,” an official said.
She was discovered on the balcony of a fourth-floor apartment owned by Tatsuya Ichihachi, 28, who was being hunted last night.
“I loved her so, so much. We planned to one day get married and start a family. I wanted to ask her to marry me. That man has ruined mine and Lindsay’s plan ? he ruined our dream.”
Graduate Lindsay ? who had been teaching English in Tokyo since October ? was reported missing on Saturday by her anxious flatmate.
A police spokesman said the suspect, Ichihashi had approached Hawker outside a train station last week and asked her for English lessons.
When she did not oblige, he followed her to her apartment and
asked her for a drink of water.
With three colleagues present in her apartment, she let him
in, and while he was there, he drew her portrait on a piece of
paper and wrote down his name and phone number, the spokesman
added.
Ichihashi fled when police arrived to question him on Monday,
losing his shoes and a rucksack he was carrying in a chase.
She had gone to Ichihachi’s flat in Ichikawa, east Toyko, to give him an English lesson ? and was found by cops on Monday. Mr Hawker insisted at yesterday’s emotion charged Press conference: “I know that Lindsay was not in any sort of relationship with the suspect.
“I think he was some sort of social misfit who targeted my daughter.
“I believe my daughter was tricked into going to this man’s apartment under the pretext of giving him English lessons. My daughter would have helped anybody.
“And it was because she would help anybody, she is where she is now.”
Driving instructor Mr Hawker, who lives with wife Julia at Brandon, near Coventry, spoke tenderly of Lindsay’s ambition to teach in Japan.
“I came out with my wife just after Christmas and I was very proud when she showed us where she worked and lived. Before coming to Japan, we had agreed that Japan was a safe place.”
A post-mortem was carried out yesterday. But cops refused to give the exact cause of death or reveal if Lindsay had been sexually assaulted.
Her clothes were found strewn around the apartment. And her body was covered by 14 bags of sand each weighing 24 kilograms.
Detectives are looking at the possibility her killer may have filled the bags with sand from Tokyo’s Shinto shrine.
Lindsay’s grieving sisters yesterday said that she went to Japan because she felt it was safer than the UK.
“Like many other people of our age she wanted to see the world and she felt safer in Japan than in this country.”
Mr Hawker and Ryan have flown to Japan to collect the body of Lindsay, who studied biology at Leeds University.
Her sisters added outside the family home: “If Lindsay’s death can make at least one young person more vigilant, then another family could be spared this devastation. It hurts more than you can ever imagine.”