Lindsay Hawker’s killer, Tatsuya Ichihashi, jailed for life

Japanese man sentenced to life in prison for rape and murder of English teacher A Japanese man has been sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of British teacher Lindsay Hawker. Hawker, 22, was found dead in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment in Ichikawa City, east of Tokyo, in March 2007. Tatsuya Ichihashi had admitted raping and killing Hawker but denied intending to kill her. Ichihashi, 32, who spent more than two and half years on the run following Hawker’s death, bowed before Hawker’s parents on Thursday as he entered the courtroom. As in previous hearings they refused to look at him. Ichihashi showed no visible reaction when the presiding judge, Masaya Hotta, sentenced him to life imprisonment. On hearing the verdict, Hawker’s mother, Julia, wiped away tears and turned to look at her daughters, Louise and Lisa, who were seated in the public gallery. Hawker’s father, Bill, had called on the Chiba district court to show “no mercy” and give Ichihashi the death penalty. Six lay judges and three professional judges helped Hotta arrive at his verdict under a limited version of trial by jury introduced in 2009. Japanese police launched a nationwide manhunt after Hawker’s body was found on the balcony of Ichihashi’s apartment. Hawker, from Brandon, near Coventry, had arrived in Japan six months earlier, was found beaten and strangled with her hands and legs bound with plastic gardening cord. Ichihashi’s defence lawyers said he had tried to revive Hawker after accidentally suffocating her to prevent her from shouting for help. Ichihashi had fought back tears as he told the court: “Yes, I raped her. Yes, I agree that Lindsay died because of my actions. But I did not mean to kill her. “Only Lindsay and I know what really happened that day, but she can no longer speak for herself because of me. It is my responsibility to tell the truth throughout this trial.” The court heard how Ichihashi had persuaded Hawker, who had arrived in Japan the previous year to teach English, to go to his apartment by taxi so he could pay her for a private language lesson she had given him in a cafe earlier that day. He fled from police when they arrived at his apartment to question him about Hawker’s disappearance. Despite a reward of 10m yen (£78,000) for information leading to his arrest and 8,000 reported sightings, he successfully avoided arrest by using false names and undergoing several rounds of plastic surgery. He was arrested in November 2009 in Osaka while waiting to board a ferry to Okinawa. A passenger had contacted port officials after recognising Ichihashi, who was wearing a hat, sunglasses and paper surgical mask. Earlier this year Ichihashi published a book, Until the Arrest, which detailed his two years and seven months as a fugitive. Ichihashi described the book as “a gesture of contrition”, adding that he wanted royalties to go to the Hawker family or a charity. He does not discuss his crimes in the book, but recounts his daily quest to avoid detection. He travelled between Aomori in Japan’s north to Okinawa, a subtropical island in the far south, and removed a mole from his face to alter his appearance, before paying for plastic surgery with cash earned during 13 months working on an Osaka construction site. Lindsay Hawker Japan Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 21, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.