Murder of Lindsay Hawker

Lindsay Hawker
Born	Lindsay Ann Hawker 30 December 1984(1984-12-30) Coventry, England
Died	24 March 2007(2007-03-24) (aged 22) Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan
Cause of death	Asphyxia due to suffocation
Nationality	British
Citizenship	United Kingdom
Alma mater	University of Leeds
Occupation	Teacher
Known for	Murder victim
Home town	Brandon, Warwickshire
Parents	Bill and Julia Hawker

Lindsay Ann Hawker (30 December 1984^[1] – 24 March 2007) 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.^[2] On 10 November 2009, it was reported by Japanese news media as well as BBC News that Ichihashi had been apprehended by Japanese police.^[3][4] On 5 July 2011, Ichihashi confessed to killing her, stating that he smothered her to prevent her from screaming while raping her.^[5] On 21 July 2011, Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder.^[6]

Background

Lindsay Hawker

Lindsay Hawker was born to Bill and Julia Hawker in Coventry,^[7] West Midlands as the middle child of three daughters; her sisters are Lisa and Louise.^[8] 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.^[9] Her family are from Brandon,^[10] a Warwickshire village outside Coventry.

She was schooled at King Henry VIII School, Coventry,^[11] 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.^[9] She shared her accommodation with two other female teachers, one from Australia, the other from Canada.^[1][12] 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.^[2]

Tatsuya Ichihashi

Tatsuya Ichihashi (市橋 達也, Ichihashi Tatsuya^?), aged 28 at the death of Hawker, lived in the city of Ichikawa, 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 laws, 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.^[2] Police described him as a loner with an obsession for physical fitness: He regularly attended a gym and cycled 25 kilometres a day.^[1][2] He also had an interest in violent manga comics, which some reporters linked to the case.^[13][14]

Meeting

The picture that Ichihashi drew of Hawker

Hawker recited the story of how she met Ichihashi to her boyfriend, who lived in England, by e-mail. 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.^[2]

Events

Hawker and Ichihashi met on Saturday 24 March 2007 in the cafe.^[15] 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.^[2] Hawker's naked body was found buried in a sand/soil-filled bathtub 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),^[2] and it appeared, from the bruises that were present across Hawker's upper body, that she had been the subject of a prolonged attack^[16]—her possessions were found strewn across the room as well.^[17] 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.^[18] Her head was shaved after she was killed.^[2]

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.^[2][19] 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.^[2]

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.^[2] 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-talkies, 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.^[2]

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.^[20] 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.^[18] On 29 March, a team of twenty Japanese police officers raided Hotel Chateau, a love hotel near Nishi-Funabashi Station, east of Tokyo, where rooms are rented to couples by the hour, but did not find Ichihashi.^[18] 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.^[21] 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.^[22] 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.^[23]

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.^[24] 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.^[25]

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.^[26] 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.^[27]

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.^[28][29] 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.^[28] Police released a photograph taken immediately before his latest surgery to the press.^[28]

Arrest

On 10 November 2009, Ichihashi was captured in Osaka while attempting to board a ferry to Okinawa.^[3][4] Ichihashi did not confess upon being arrested, and when his 23-day detention period without charge expired on December 2,^[30] he was initially charged with abandoning a body,^[31] and served two more warrants for rape and murder.^[32][33] It has been alleged by Ichihashi's lawyers that during this period he was threatened with the death penalty if he did not speak,^[34] and his reticence was attributed to fatigue and stress.^[35] 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.^[30]

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.^[33] 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.^[36]

Confession

In court, Ichihashi admitted to suffocating Hawker, to prevent her from screaming for help while he raped her.^[37]

Sentence

On 21 July 2011 Tatsuya Ichihashi was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Lindsay Hawker by the Chiba District Court.^[6] The Hawker family had asked for the death penalty for Ichihashi,^[6] 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.^[38]

Media coverage

Hawker's parents have striven to keep Hawker's case on the media agenda, appealing for information shortly after the murder.^[39] and visiting Japan three months later in order to renew attention.^[40] 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."^[41] They returned again on the second anniversary,^[42] and Hawker's father revisited the country later that year, a month after Ichihashi's arrest, to express his gratitude.^[43]

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.^[44] 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.^[45][46]

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.^[46][47]

Ichihashi has written a book named Until I Was Arrested which tells his side of the story.^[48] Ichihashi had offered Hawker's family all royalties his book might earn, an offer the family rejected.^[48]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Elizabeth Sanderson (2007-05-27). "Lindsay Ann Hawker's killer still on the run". London: Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=457891&in_page_id=1770. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} "Bill Hawker: Where is my daughter's killer?". London: The Times. 2008-11-16. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5139609.ece. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Fugitive wanted over 2007 killing of British teacher arrested in Osaka". http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/news/20091110p2a00m0na027000c.html. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Suspected killer of British woman detained in Japan chinaview.cn retrieved on 10 November 2009
5. ^ http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC110705-0000219/Japanese-man-admits-to-raping,-strangling-British-teacher-in-2007
6. ^ ^{a b c} "Japanese man guilty of killing British teacher; receives life sentence". CNN. 2011-07-21. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/21/japan.uk.student.trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t2. 
7. ^ Births England and Wales 1837–2006
8. ^ Pictured: The new face of Lindsay Hawker's killer after he had plastic surgery while on the run
9. ^ ^{a b} "Profile: Lindsay Ann Hawker". BBC News. 2007-03-28. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6502219.stm. Retrieved 2007-03-29. 
10. ^ Chris Hogg (2008-03-21). "'We want to help Lindsay to rest'". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/7305414.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
11. ^ Fisher, George (2007-03-28). "School Tribute To Murdered Lindsay". Sky News. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641258049. 
12. ^ "Briton’s body buried in bath of sand". London: The Times. 2007-03-28. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1577421.ece. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
13. ^ Virginia Wheeler (2007-03-30). "Bath killer's sick pic of Lindsay". London: The Sun. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article23530.ece. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
14. ^ Eugene Henderson (2007). "Lindsay bound with cords and strangled". http://www.thelondonpaper.com/manuallyreassign/lindsay-bound-with-cords-and-strangled. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
15. ^ "Is This Lindsay's Killer?". Sky News. 2007-04-02. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1258637,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-01. 
16. ^ "Teacher's parents in Japan appeal". BBC News. 2008-03-19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7305126.stm. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
17. ^ "'A Wonderful Person'". Sky News. 2007-03-28. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1257881,00.html. Retrieved 2007-03-30. 
18. ^ ^{a b c} Richard Lloyd Parry (2007-03-30). "Japanese police struggle to find Lindsay's killer". The Times. Archived from the original on 2007-04-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20070428174436/http://timesonline.typepad.com/times_tokyo_weblog/2007/03/japanse_police_.html. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
19. ^ Nick Britten and Colin Joyce (2007-03-28). "Murder Briton found buried in bath of sand". London: The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2007/03/28/wjapan28.xml. Retrieved 2008-11-21. ^{[dead link]}
20. ^ "Briton's suspected murderer on run; father pleads for help". The Japan Times. 2007-03-29. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070329a1.html. 
21. ^ New wanted posters of Hawker's suspected murderer in various disguises released Japan Today 2008-03-14
22. ^ [1] Ichihashi reportedly seen in Tokyo's gay area.
23. ^ John Bingham (2008-10-23). "Murdered Lindsay Hawker's killer may have committed suicide, Japanese police fear". London: The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/3248564/Murdered-Lindsay-Hawkers-killer-may-have-committed-suicide-Japanese-police-fear.html. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
24. ^ "Fugitive Ichihashi may be in Philippines". Japan Today. 2009-01-15. http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/fugitive-ichihashi-may-be-in-philippines. Retrieved 2009-01-15. 
25. ^ Justin McCurry (2009-11-10). "Timeline: Lindsay Hawker's murder". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/10/lindsay-hawker-timeline. Retrieved 2009-12-24. 
26. ^ Ichihashi bounty at ¥10 million, The Japan Times, 26 June 2009
27. ^ "Dividing up Ichihashi reward money worthy of its own investigation". Japan Today. 2009-11-12. http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/dividing-up-ichihashi-reward-money-worthy-of-its-own-investigation. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
28. ^ ^{a b c} "Police release new photo of man wanted over killing of British woman". The Mainichi Daily News. 2009-11-06. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091106p2a00m0na005000c.html. Retrieved 2009-11-09. ^{[dead link]}
29. ^ "Man wanted over Briton's murder was in Osaka, Fukuoka". The Mainichi Daily News. 2009-11-09. http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091110p2a00m0na027000c.html. Retrieved 2009-11-10. ^{[dead link]}
30. ^ ^{a b} "Ichihashi says he didn't mean to kill Hawker and that he tried artificial resuscitation". Japan Today. 2009-12-23. http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/ichihashi-admits-hawker-died-in-his-apartment. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
31. ^ The Australian: Witness sees through accused strangler Tatsuya Ichihashi's plastic surgery
32. ^ The Japan Times: Ichihashi gets warrant for Hawker rape-murder
33. ^ ^{a b} Green, Stephen, "Ichihashi trial key test of legal reforms: Extensive media coverage could sway lay judges", Military Times, 8 December 2009, p. 12.
34. ^ Robin Powell (2009-12-05). "Without a confession, justice stalls for Lindsay". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/world/without-a-confession-justice-stalls-for-lindsay-20091204-kb3q.html. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
35. ^ Alex Plough (2009-12-09). "Lindsay Ann Hawker's father returns to Japan". In the News. http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/world/asia-pacific/lindsay-ann-hawker-s-father-returns-to-japan-$1346302.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-24. 
36. ^ http://www.jiadep.org/Sentenced_to_Death_files/page345_1.html "" ""
37. ^ "Killer of British teacher Lindsay Hawker bows in apology to her family at Japan court as he admits raping and suffocating her". Daily Mail (London). 2011-07-05. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011006/Lindsay-Hawker-died-mistake-says-killer.html. 
38. ^ "Lindsay Hawker's killer Tatsuya Ichihashi jailed for life". BBC News. 2011-07-21. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14226859. 
39. ^ Reuters (2007-03-29). "Tearful plea in Tokyo body case". TVNZ. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/1041855. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
40. ^ Reuters (2007-06-29). "Slain Briton's family make TV appeal in Japan". http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKT6509220070630. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
41. ^ Jun Hungo (2008-03-25). "Hawker's kin in Japan to prod manhunt". The Japan Times. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080325a2.html. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
42. ^ "Murdered Briton's family in Japan". BBC News. 23 March 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/7958410.stm. 
43. ^ "Hawker's dad visits, thanks public". The Japan Times. 2009-12-11. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091211a6.html. Retrieved 2009-12-23. 
44. ^ Hogg C (2008-03-21). "'We want to help Lindsay to rest'". UK: BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7305414.stm. Retrieved 2008-10-27. "The case shocked people here in Japan. It reminded people of the murder of another young British woman, Lucie Blackman, a few years earlier." 
45. ^ McNeill, David (2006-06-06). "International Media Scream 'Yellow Peril'. Race and sensationalism in coverage of Japan’s Hawker, Blackman murders". The Asia Pacific Journal. JapanFocus.org. http://www.japanfocus.org/_David_McNeill-International_Media_Scream__Yellow_Peril___Race_and_sensationalism_in_coverage_of_Japan_s_Hawker__Blackman_murders/. Retrieved 2008-10-27. 
46. ^ ^{a b} Holt, Jenny (2009-11-13). "Japanese men are no 'peril'". London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/13/lindsay-hawker-japanese-men. Retrieved 2008-12-23. 
47. ^ "Afternoon Play: A Tokyo Murder". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dghmq. Retrieved 2008-12-23. 
48. ^ ^{a b} Lindsay Hawker Killer Jailed For Life

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