Japanese man admits killing Lindsay Ann Hawker

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jul/04/japanese-man-lindsay-ann-hawker-murder

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The man accused of murdering British woman Lindsay Hawker near Tokyo four years ago admitted he was responsible for her death but denied intending to kill her.

During a tearful testimony at the first hearing in his trial at Chiba district court on Monday, Tatsuya Ichihashi also admitted raping Hawker at his home and abandoning her body. The incident occurred while Ichihashi was living in a apartment in Ichikawa, a suburban town in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, in late March 2007.

Ichihashi, 32, said he was responsible for Hawker's death, but claimed she had died accidentally while he tried to stifle her cries for help.

"I didn't intend to kill her, but I am responsible for her death," he told the court. Hawker's parents and two sisters sat just metres away. "I was the one who scared her and left her dead. I am very sorry for what I did."

Hawker's father, Bill, and mother, Julia, betrayed little emotion as Ichihashi vowed to tell the court the truth about the events that led to their daughter's death. As the hearing began, he reportedly prostrated himself in front of the couple in a dramatic show of remorse.

Japanese police launched a nationwide manhunt after Hawker's body was found buried in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment.

Hawker, 22, from Brandon, near Coventry, had arrived in Japan six months earlier, and 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.

Dressed in a black shirt, faded black jeans, his unkempt hair falling over his eyes, a pale-looking Ichihashi 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 on 25 March 2007 so he could pay her for a private language lesson she had given him in a cafe earlier that day.

He fled in his socks from police when they arrived at his apartment to question him about Hawker's disappearance. Despite a reward of 10m yen for information leading to his arrest and 8,000 reported sightings, he spent more than two and half years on the run, avoiding 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 the southern island of Okinawa. A passenger had contacted port officials after recognising Ichihashi, who was wearing a hat, sunglasses and paper surgical mask.

As "victim participants" under Japan's court system, the Hawkers will be permitted to question Ichihashi during his trial. At the court's discretion, they may also give their opinion on sentencing. Ichihashi wrote to them while in custody, apologising for their daughter's death, but the family dismissed the letter as a ploy to gain a lenient sentence.

"We are here to get justice for Lindsay," Bill Hawker told reporters. "I can't say much more because the trial is about to start, except to thank the police and everyone who's been involved in this case. Now we just want to get it over and done with."

The presiding judge, Masaya Hotta, said the six lay judges and three professional judges will help him arrive at a verdict.

He said the verdict would depend on whether the jurors believe Ichihashi intended to kill Hawker.

Bill and Julia Hawker showed no emotion for most of the hearing, which attracted almost 1,000 applications for 60 public seats, and widespread media coverage. But during the defence's account of the events leading up to Hawker's death, her father occasionally shook his head and her mother wiped away tears. Hawker's sisters, Lisa and Louise, were seated in the public gallery.

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 alleged 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.

Prosecutors have yet to enter a sentencing demand. The crimes of which Ichihashi is accused carry the death penalty in Japan, although it is thought he is unlikely to face hanging even if found guilty of murder. The next hearing will be held on Tuesday. The verdict and sentencing will be given on 21 July.