Lindsay Hawker
Encyclopedia
Lindsay Ann Hawker was a 22-year-old British teacher who was killed in Japan in early 2007. The man seen fleeing the apartment where she was killed, Tatsuya Ichihashi, was wanted by police for abandonment of a body. On 10 November 2009, it was reported by Japanese news media as well as BBC
News that Ichihashi had been apprehended by Japanese police. On 5 July 2011, Ichihashi confessed to killing her, stating that he smothered her to prevent her from screaming while raping her. On 21 July 2011, Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
, West Midlands
as the middle child of three daughters; her sisters are Lisa and Louise. She moved to Japan
in October 2006 to teach English at the Koiwa branch of Nova
in Tokyo
, which was Japan's largest private English conversation school. Her family are from Brandon
, a Warwickshire village outside Coventry
.
She was schooled at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, and was an alumna of the University of Leeds
, where she studied biology and had achieved a first-class honours degree, graduating in 2006. She was popular and outgoing; although she had a view to studying for a Master's
, she opted to teach English for a year in Japan. She shared her accommodation with two other female teachers, one from Australia
, the other from Canada
. On the day she disappeared, her family became distressed due to her lack of contact—she had used a variety of media, including e-mail, Skype
, and telephone to regularly stay in contact with her family during her time there.
, in Chiba Prefecture
, just east of Tokyo. Born in Gifu Prefecture
on 5 January 1979 Ichihashi grew up in Chiba and Gifu, as his father relocated his family due to a job assignment as a medical doctor, along with his dentist wife. After graduating from Department of Horticulture
, Chiba University
in 2005, Ichihashi did not work, but lived on an allowance of roughly over ¥
100,000 (over £
600 at that time) a month from his parents. Little has been made public about him due to the comparatively restrictive nature of Japanese privacy law
s, and the reticence of his parents to speak about him.
Ichihashi had no previous convictions, but he had been the subject of an allegation of "theft and injury" six years before Hawker's death. Ichihashi had allegedly assaulted a woman on the street during a robbery, but the matter had been settled out of court. Ichihashi had been in a stable, year-long relationship with a Japanese woman at the time of Hawker's killing. Police described him as a loner with an obsession for physical fitness: He regularly attended a gym and cycled 25 kilometres a day. He also had an interest in violent manga
comics, which some reporters linked to the case.
Hawker recited the story of how she met Ichihashi to her boyfriend, who lived in England, by Email. Four days before the killing happened, she was approached by him on her train journey home from work. Ichihashi at first claimed she was his English teacher (she was not); and then asked her to confirm if she was an English teacher. Ichihashi ran after her as she cycled home and asked for a glass of water when she arrived. Hawker had felt sorry for him and decided, as a precaution, to let him in to show him her two flatmates. Once inside, Ichihashi took out a pen and paper and drew a picture of her, signing it with his name, telephone number, and e-mail address. At some point, the pair agreed to meet for an English lesson four days later, at a cafe, which was something the Nova school allowed.
on the apartment's balcony. She had been bound and gagged with plastic ties and scarves, with one of her hands lying outside the mixture
. Both Hawker and Ichihashi were familiar with martial arts
(Ichihashi was much more experienced, having attained a black belt
), and it appeared, from the bruises that were present across Hawker's upper body, that she had been the subject of a prolonged attack—her possessions were found strewn across the room as well. Police said that the egg-sized bruises on the left side of her face appeared to have been inflicted with a fist, while lesser marks on her upper body were the result of collision with furniture. Hawker had died when her assailant began strangling her and broke the cartilage
of her neck. Her head was shaved after she was killed.
It had been widely reported in the days after her death that Ichihashi had buried her only in sand. Ichihashi had buried the body in sand and compost soil
, and then sprayed it with a substance used to compact and decompose waste. It is believed that this had been done with a plan in mind to either bury the body in concrete or to wait until it had decomposed. Ichihashi had bought the materials over six visits to his local hardware store; these visits had been made in the hours leading up the arrival of the police force, on 26 March.
After failing to attend her lessons that were scheduled for 25 and 26 March, Nova reported Hawker missing at 2.30 pm on the 26th. Hawker's friends had tried to contact the police previously, but the message was not passed along adequately amongst the authorities. Two officers were dispatched, and reached Ichihashi's apartment at 5.40 pm. After being made aware of the previous allegation made against Ichihashi, and noticing that there was no light on inside the apartment, but that there appeared to be somebody in there, these officers called for back-up at 7.00 pm (they were not permitted to knock without proper cause). Within the next hour, seven more officers arrived.
Two hours after the nine officers had assembled outside, Ichihashi walked out of his front door, with a rucksack on and in bare feet (this would be unusual since, though shoes are traditionally left in the Japanese foyer
and not worn inside, they are almost always worn out of doors.) Ichihashi was made aware of the situation and attempted to run away from the officers. One was able to grab his rucksack, but he continued to flee. Ichihashi's escape was aided in part by the fact that none of the officers had walkie-talkie
s, and so the officers on the fourth floor could not alert those on the ground. Ichihashi lost the officers after vaulting the last few feet of the stairway to the ground, but was later rediscovered, having found a pair of athletic shoes, before escaping again by zigzagging through the street. The contents of his rucksack did not suggest that he was trying to escape: All it contained was his gym clothes, and police believed that he was going there to wash them.
near Nishi-Funabashi Station
, east of Tokyo, where rooms are rented to couples by the hour, but did not find Ichihashi. On 13 March 2008, Japanese police released a new wanted poster of Ichihashi, which included an enhanced image of the suspect disguised as a woman. They also released images of a drawing he had made of Hawker in the hopes that someone would recognize the drawing style.
In the early months of 2008, the police investigated sightings of Ichihashi among the gay
sections of Kabukicho in Tokyo, where he had tentatively been identified by his male sexual partners. However, in the latter part of this year, the investigation appeared to have gone cold. In October 2008, by which time 140 officers had become involved in what was a relatively large investigation, it was suggested by police that Ichihashi may have committed suicide. Hawker's father called this a "ploy" to scale down the operation, and some inside sources signalled that the investigation was coming to a close. However, this was not directly communicated to either the Hawker family or the British Foreign Office
.
Reports continued to abound speculating Ichihashi's location, and on 15 January 2009, in an article in Japan Today, it was reported that Ichihashi, who had turned 30 on 5 January 2009, had fled and gone underground in the Philippines
, according to a reporter from Spa!, the weekly magazine. For years, Japanese criminals wanted by Japanese authorities have fled to the Philippines to escape arrest, making the Philippines something of a haven for Japanese criminals. On the second anniversary of her death (see below), life-size cut-outs of Ichihashi were released by the police to raise the profile of the case. At this point, the Hawkers were for the first time critical of the progress the investigation was making.
On 26 June 2009, the Japanese National Police Agency
raised the cash reward for information leading to the arrest of Tatsuya Ichihashi, from ¥1 million to ¥10 million. Police usually offer cash rewards of ¥1 million to ¥3 million for information leading to arrest in serious cases. The manner in which this reward would be distributed was questioned when Ichihashi was arrested later that year, as a number of informants had contributed to his capture. These included a cosmetic surgery clinic in Nagoya, an employee at an Osaka
construction company where Ichihashi had been employed for 14 months, and an Osaka ferry company employee who reported the sighting of someone who bore resemblance to Ichihashi.
On 4 November 2009, police disclosed that Ichihashi had undergone plastic surgery
on 24 October at the clinic in Nagoya, where he had his nose uplifted after he had failed to receive surgery in Fukuoka
in mid-October. He had apparently received cosmetic surgery on several occasions to remove two moles on his cheek, add a fold to his eyelids, thin both his lips, and to increase the height of his nose before he visited the Nagoya clinic. Police released a photograph taken immediately before his latest surgery to the press.
and murder
. It has been alleged by Ichihashi's lawyers that during this period he was threatened with the death penalty if he did not speak, and his reticence was attributed to fatigue and stress. On 23 December, one of his lawyers announced that he had acknowledged that he was involved in her death, but that he had not intended to kill her, and had attempted artificial resuscitation.
Stephen Green, writing for the Japan Times, commented that the case, which had been extensively covered by the media, was likely to test the fairness of the judicial system in Japan, which operates a lay judge system and has the option of the death penalty in certain cases. However, it is extremely rare in Japan to be sentenced to death for killing only one victim. As of 2010, fewer than 10 of the 111 inmates on Japan's death row have killed only one person, including previous convictions.
Hawker's case has been repeatedly compared to the 2000 murder of Lucie Blackman, another female British citizen, whose dismembered body was found buried in a shallow grave at a beach in Miura, Kanagawa
in January 2001. Mizuho Fukushima, quoted in The Asia Pacific Journal and
Jenny Holt in the Guardian newspaper has criticised the sensationalist coverage of the case in the British press, characterising it as a combination of missing white woman syndrome
and yellow peril
racial scaremongering.
In September 2008 a three-part radio play loosely based on the Hawker case, "A Tokyo Murder," by John Dryden and Miriam Smith, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4
.
Ichihashi has written a book named Until I Was Arrested which tells his side of the story. Ichihashi had offered Hawker's family all royalties his book might earn, an offer the family rejected.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
News that Ichihashi had been apprehended by Japanese police. On 5 July 2011, Ichihashi confessed to killing her, stating that he smothered her to prevent her from screaming while raping her. On 21 July 2011, Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.
Lindsay Hawker
Lindsay Hawker was born to Bill and Julia Hawker in CoventryCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, West Midlands
West Midlands (county)
The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...
as the middle child of three daughters; her sisters are Lisa and Louise. She moved to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in October 2006 to teach English at the Koiwa branch of Nova
Nova (eikaiwa)
Nova was the largest eikaiwa school in Japan until its widely publicized collapse in October 2007. Before its bankruptcy, Nova employed approximately 15,000 people across a group of companies that supported the operations of and extended out from the "Intercultural Network" of its language schools...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, which was Japan's largest private English conversation school. Her family are from Brandon
Brandon, Warwickshire
Brandon is a small village in Warwickshire, England. Along with nearby Bretford, it forms part of a joint civil parish of Brandon and Bretford. Administratively it is part of the borough of Rugby...
, a Warwickshire village outside Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
.
She was schooled at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, and was an alumna of the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, where she studied biology and had achieved a first-class honours degree, graduating in 2006. She was popular and outgoing; although she had a view to studying for a Master's
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
, she opted to teach English for a year in Japan. She shared her accommodation with two other female teachers, one from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the other from Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. On the day she disappeared, her family became distressed due to her lack of contact—she had used a variety of media, including e-mail, Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
, and telephone to regularly stay in contact with her family during her time there.
Tatsuya Ichihashi
, aged 28 at the death of Hawker, lived in the city of IchikawaIchikawa, Chiba
is a city located in northwest Chiba, Japan, approximately 20 kilometers from the center of Tokyo. The city was founded on November 3, 1934. As of January 1, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 474,586 and a density of 8,259.42 persons per km². The total area is 57.46 km²...
, in Chiba Prefecture
Chiba Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
, just east of Tokyo. Born in Gifu Prefecture
Gifu Prefecture
is a prefecture located in the Chūbu region of central Japan. Its capital is the city of Gifu.Located in the center of Japan, it has long played an important part as the crossroads of Japan, connecting the east to the west through such routes as the Nakasendō...
on 5 January 1979 Ichihashi grew up in Chiba and Gifu, as his father relocated his family due to a job assignment as a medical doctor, along with his dentist wife. After graduating from Department of Horticulture
Horticulture
Horticulture is the industry and science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for the planting of seeds, tubers, or cuttings. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic...
, Chiba University
Chiba University
is a national university in the city of Chiba, Japan. It offers Doctoral degrees in education as part of a coalition with Tokyo Gakugei University, Saitama University, and Yokohama National University.-Faculties:*Letters*Education*Law and Economics*Science...
in 2005, Ichihashi did not work, but lived on an allowance of roughly over ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
100,000 (over £
Pound sign
The pound sign is the symbol for the pound sterling—the currency of the United Kingdom . The same symbol is used for similarly named currencies in some other countries and territories, such as the Irish pound, Gibraltar pound, Australian pound and the Italian lira...
600 at that time) a month from his parents. Little has been made public about him due to the comparatively restrictive nature of Japanese privacy law
Privacy law
Privacy law refers to the laws which deal with the regulation of personal information about individuals which can be collected by governments and other public as well as private organizations and its storage and use....
s, and the reticence of his parents to speak about him.
Ichihashi had no previous convictions, but he had been the subject of an allegation of "theft and injury" six years before Hawker's death. Ichihashi had allegedly assaulted a woman on the street during a robbery, but the matter had been settled out of court. Ichihashi had been in a stable, year-long relationship with a Japanese woman at the time of Hawker's killing. Police described him as a loner with an obsession for physical fitness: He regularly attended a gym and cycled 25 kilometres a day. He also had an interest in violent manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
comics, which some reporters linked to the case.
Meeting
Events
Hawker and Ichihashi met on Saturday 24 March 2007 in the cafe. When the session had been concluded, they caught a taxi to Ichihashi's apartment, which was a few hundred yards down the road. Hawker told the taxi driver to wait for a short time and went up to Ichihashi's apartment. Seven minutes later, the taxi driver left after she failed to arrive. Hawker's naked body was found buried in a sand/soil-filled bathtubBathtub
A bath , bathtub , or tub is a large container for holding water in which a person may bathe . Most modern bathtubs are made of acrylic or fiberglass, but alternatives are available in enamel over steel or cast iron, and occasionally waterproof finished wood...
on the apartment's balcony. She had been bound and gagged with plastic ties and scarves, with one of her hands lying outside the mixture
Mixture
In chemistry, a mixture is a material system made up by two or more different substances which are mixed together but are not combined chemically...
. Both Hawker and Ichihashi were familiar with martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
(Ichihashi was much more experienced, having attained a black belt
Black belt (martial arts)
In martial arts, the black belt is a way to describe a graduate of a field where a practitioner's level is often marked by the color of the belt. The black belt is commonly the highest belt color used and denotes a degree of competence. It is often associated with a teaching grade though...
), and it appeared, from the bruises that were present across Hawker's upper body, that she had been the subject of a prolonged attack—her possessions were found strewn across the room as well. Police said that the egg-sized bruises on the left side of her face appeared to have been inflicted with a fist, while lesser marks on her upper body were the result of collision with furniture. Hawker had died when her assailant began strangling her and broke the cartilage
Cartilage
Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
of her neck. Her head was shaved after she was killed.
It had been widely reported in the days after her death that Ichihashi had buried her only in sand. Ichihashi had buried the body in sand and compost soil
Compost
Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting for the materials to break down from anywhere...
, and then sprayed it with a substance used to compact and decompose waste. It is believed that this had been done with a plan in mind to either bury the body in concrete or to wait until it had decomposed. Ichihashi had bought the materials over six visits to his local hardware store; these visits had been made in the hours leading up the arrival of the police force, on 26 March.
After failing to attend her lessons that were scheduled for 25 and 26 March, Nova reported Hawker missing at 2.30 pm on the 26th. Hawker's friends had tried to contact the police previously, but the message was not passed along adequately amongst the authorities. Two officers were dispatched, and reached Ichihashi's apartment at 5.40 pm. After being made aware of the previous allegation made against Ichihashi, and noticing that there was no light on inside the apartment, but that there appeared to be somebody in there, these officers called for back-up at 7.00 pm (they were not permitted to knock without proper cause). Within the next hour, seven more officers arrived.
Two hours after the nine officers had assembled outside, Ichihashi walked out of his front door, with a rucksack on and in bare feet (this would be unusual since, though shoes are traditionally left in the Japanese foyer
Genkan
are traditional Japanese entryway areas for a house, apartment, or building—something of a combination of a porch and a doormat. The primary function of genkan is for the removal of shoes before entering the main part of the house or building. Genkan are often recessed into the floor, to contain...
and not worn inside, they are almost always worn out of doors.) Ichihashi was made aware of the situation and attempted to run away from the officers. One was able to grab his rucksack, but he continued to flee. Ichihashi's escape was aided in part by the fact that none of the officers had walkie-talkie
Walkie-talkie
A walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
s, and so the officers on the fourth floor could not alert those on the ground. Ichihashi lost the officers after vaulting the last few feet of the stairway to the ground, but was later rediscovered, having found a pair of athletic shoes, before escaping again by zigzagging through the street. The contents of his rucksack did not suggest that he was trying to escape: All it contained was his gym clothes, and police believed that he was going there to wash them.
Investigation
Police suspect that between Sunday night and early Monday, Ichihashi moved the bathtub from the bathroom to the balcony and put Hawker's body into it. Neighbors said they heard sounds of something striking metal and something being dragged during that time. Police obtained an arrest warrant Tuesday for Ichihashi on suspicion of abandoning her body, and put him on the nationwide wanted list. On 29 March, detectives removed a shopping trolley from Ichihashi’s apartment building, in which he is believed to have transported the bags of horticultural soil where Hawker was buried. On 29 March, a team of twenty Japanese police officers raided Hotel Chateau, a love hotelLove hotel
A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy for sexual activities...
near Nishi-Funabashi Station
Nishi-Funabashi Station
is a railway station in Funabashi, Chiba, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company , Tokyo Metro, and the Tōyō Rapid Railway. It is the eastern-most station of the Tokyo subway network, lying in Chiba prefecture.-Lines:...
, east of Tokyo, where rooms are rented to couples by the hour, but did not find Ichihashi. On 13 March 2008, Japanese police released a new wanted poster of Ichihashi, which included an enhanced image of the suspect disguised as a woman. They also released images of a drawing he had made of Hawker in the hopes that someone would recognize the drawing style.
In the early months of 2008, the police investigated sightings of Ichihashi among the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
sections of Kabukicho in Tokyo, where he had tentatively been identified by his male sexual partners. However, in the latter part of this year, the investigation appeared to have gone cold. In October 2008, by which time 140 officers had become involved in what was a relatively large investigation, it was suggested by police that Ichihashi may have committed suicide. Hawker's father called this a "ploy" to scale down the operation, and some inside sources signalled that the investigation was coming to a close. However, this was not directly communicated to either the Hawker family or the British Foreign Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
.
Reports continued to abound speculating Ichihashi's location, and on 15 January 2009, in an article in Japan Today, it was reported that Ichihashi, who had turned 30 on 5 January 2009, had fled and gone underground in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, according to a reporter from Spa!, the weekly magazine. For years, Japanese criminals wanted by Japanese authorities have fled to the Philippines to escape arrest, making the Philippines something of a haven for Japanese criminals. On the second anniversary of her death (see below), life-size cut-outs of Ichihashi were released by the police to raise the profile of the case. At this point, the Hawkers were for the first time critical of the progress the investigation was making.
On 26 June 2009, the Japanese National Police Agency
National Police Agency (Japan)
The is an agency administered by the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office in the cabinet of Japan, and is the central coordinating agency of the Japanese police system....
raised the cash reward for information leading to the arrest of Tatsuya Ichihashi, from ¥1 million to ¥10 million. Police usually offer cash rewards of ¥1 million to ¥3 million for information leading to arrest in serious cases. The manner in which this reward would be distributed was questioned when Ichihashi was arrested later that year, as a number of informants had contributed to his capture. These included a cosmetic surgery clinic in Nagoya, an employee at an Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
construction company where Ichihashi had been employed for 14 months, and an Osaka ferry company employee who reported the sighting of someone who bore resemblance to Ichihashi.
On 4 November 2009, police disclosed that Ichihashi had undergone plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
on 24 October at the clinic in Nagoya, where he had his nose uplifted after he had failed to receive surgery in Fukuoka
Fukuoka
Fukuoka most often refers to the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture.It can also refer to:-Locations:* Fukuoka, Gifu, a town in Gifu Prefecture, Japan* Fukuoka, Toyama, a town in Toyama Prefecture, Japan...
in mid-October. He had apparently received cosmetic surgery on several occasions to remove two moles on his cheek, add a fold to his eyelids, thin both his lips, and to increase the height of his nose before he visited the Nagoya clinic. Police released a photograph taken immediately before his latest surgery to the press.
Arrest
On 10 November 2009, Ichihashi was captured in Osaka while attempting to board a ferry to Okinawa. Ichihashi did not confess upon being arrested, and when his 23-day detention period without charge expired on December 2, he was initially charged with abandoning a body, and served two more warrants for rapeRape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. It has been alleged by Ichihashi's lawyers that during this period he was threatened with the death penalty if he did not speak, and his reticence was attributed to fatigue and stress. On 23 December, one of his lawyers announced that he had acknowledged that he was involved in her death, but that he had not intended to kill her, and had attempted artificial resuscitation.
Stephen Green, writing for the Japan Times, commented that the case, which had been extensively covered by the media, was likely to test the fairness of the judicial system in Japan, which operates a lay judge system and has the option of the death penalty in certain cases. However, it is extremely rare in Japan to be sentenced to death for killing only one victim. As of 2010, fewer than 10 of the 111 inmates on Japan's death row have killed only one person, including previous convictions.
Confession
In court, Ichihashi admitted to suffocating Hawker, to prevent her from screaming for help while he raped her.Sentence
On 21 July 2011 Tatsuya Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Lindsay Hawker by the Chiba District Court. The Hawker family had asked for the death penalty for Ichihashi, but the court felt that the death penalty was not appropriate as Ichihashi had no previous convictions and at the age of 32 there was still a chance that he could be rehabilitated.Media coverage
Hawker's parents have striven to keep Hawker's case on the media agenda, appealing for information shortly after the murder. and visiting Japan three months later in order to renew attention. Her family visited again a year after her death, imploring the media to keep the case alive and for Ichihashi to hand himself in. Although Bill Hawker expressed dismay at the lack of knowledge surrounding whereabouts, he stressed that "we have not come here to criticize the Japanese police." They returned again on the second anniversary, and Hawker's father revisited the country later that year, a month after Ichihashi's arrest, to express his gratitude.Hawker's case has been repeatedly compared to the 2000 murder of Lucie Blackman, another female British citizen, whose dismembered body was found buried in a shallow grave at a beach in Miura, Kanagawa
Miura, Kanagawa
is a city located in central Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the city has an estimated population of 44,238 and a population density of 1,490 persons per km²...
in January 2001. Mizuho Fukushima, quoted in The Asia Pacific Journal and
Jenny Holt in the Guardian newspaper has criticised the sensationalist coverage of the case in the British press, characterising it as a combination of missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome or missing pretty girl syndrome is a term used by some media and social critics to describe the seemingly disproportionate degree of coverage in television, radio, newspaper and magazine reporting of a misfortune, most often a missing person case, involving a young,...
and yellow peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
racial scaremongering.
In September 2008 a three-part radio play loosely based on the Hawker case, "A Tokyo Murder," by John Dryden and Miriam Smith, was broadcast by BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
.
Ichihashi has written a book named Until I Was Arrested which tells his side of the story. Ichihashi had offered Hawker's family all royalties his book might earn, an offer the family rejected.
External links
- The Lindsay Hawker Case – Media (J-E) – English translations of recent Japanese articles related to the Lindsay Ann Hawker murder case
- lindsayannhawker.com "Help Us Get Justice for Lindsay"
- Being A Broad T-shirt awareness campaign