Tatsuya Ichihashi Japanese Man Gets Lifer For Killing British Teacher

Tatsuya Ichihashi Japanese Man Gets Lifer For Killing British Teacher
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A court in Japan on Thursday sentenced a 32-year-old Japanese man to life in prison on being found guilty of raping and murdering his 22-year-old English teacher Lindsay Hawker at his Tokyo apartment in 2007.

During earlier hearings, Tatsuya Ichihashi had admitted to raping Hawker after enticing her into his apartment and killing her later. He, however, insisted that Hawker's death by suffocation happened accidentally when he tried to prevent her from screaming.

Hawker, a native of Brandon near Coventry, had arrived in Japan in October 2006 to teach English at the Nova language school. Six months later, her naked body was found buried in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment.

Hawker's body was discovered with her hands and legs bound with plastic gardening cord. An autopsy of the body revealed that she died of suffocation. Investigators and prosecutors believe that Ichihashi had strangled her after the rape.

Hawker was last seen alive while giving Ichihashi an English lesson in a coffee shop on March 25, 2007. Ichihashi later admitted that he had enticed Hawker into his apartment for a private language lesson after their session at the coffee shop.

Soon after the incident, Ichihashi remained in hiding for almost two and a half years, during which he underwent a plastic surgery on his face spending money he had raised by doing odd jobs.

He was arrested in November 2009 in Osaka while waiting to board a ferry to Okinawa. Since his detention, Ichihashi wrote a book in which he detailed his fugitive life after evading arrest.

Although Ichihashi said he wants to donate the proceedings from the sale of his book to his victim's family, which have since declined the offer. Hawker's family was in Japan for hearing the sentencing. Her father had earlier urged the court to give him the "heaviest punishment" possible.

Under Japanese laws, the Chiba District Court could have sentenced Ichihashi to death on account of the crimes he had committed. But the prosecutors requested the court earlier to sentence him to life in prison instead.

by RTT Staff Writer

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