ID :
89007
Wed, 11/11/2009 - 00:37
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/89007
The shortlink copeid
Police arrest Ichihashi, suspect in murder of British woman+
OSAKA, Nov. 11 Kyodo - A Japanese murder suspect who spent two years and seven months on the run and who altered his appearance through cosmetic surgery was arrested Tuesday in connection with the 2007 slaying of a British woman after his identity was confirmed by fingerprints.
Police said they formally arrested Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, after seizing him in
Suminoe Ward, Osaka, in the evening and taking him into custody. He had been
wanted on a technical charge of abandoning the body of language school teacher
Lindsay Hawker, who was 22 at the time of her death, at his apartment in Chiba
Prefecture.
Osaka police received a call from an employee of a ferry operator at 6:44 p.m.
saying there was a man resembling the person depicted in a wanted poster
sitting on a bench on the second floor of a ferry terminal where boats depart
for the southern island of Okinawa.
Police officers went to the scene about four hours before the ferry left the
port and took the man to Suminoe Police Station, where he identified himself as
Ichihashi. The police arrested him after a fingerprint check confirmed his
identity.
Witnesses at the ferry terminal said Ichihashi was wearing a dark jacket, a
knitted cap and sunglasses. They added that he was taken away flanked by two
police officers and offered no resistance despite showing a little reluctance.
He was heard telling one officer, ''I'm Ichihashi.''
An official of the ferry company, A'Line Ferry Co., said Ichihashi first tried
to buy a ticket in Kobe for a ferry from Kobe to Okinawa but needed to change
his plan because there was no boat available for the southbound route from the
Hyogo Prefecture city.
The employee who attended to Ichihashi at the Kobe office became suspicious and
told colleagues at the Osaka terminal to be alert, according to the company.
The company then discussed whether to call the police if the suspicious-looking
man went to the Osaka terminal.
Ichihashi was later taken from the police station to be transferred to the
jurisdiction of the Chiba Prefecture police, who are expected to investigate
his possible involvement in the murder itself.
Nightly TV news programs on major Japanese networks showed a horde of reporters
and photographers swarming around Ichihashi as he was boarding a Tokyo-bound
bullet train at Shin-Osaka Station.
Similar scenes developed when the train arrived at Tokyo Station at 11:45 p.m.
before Ichihashi was transported in a car to Gyotoku Police Station in Chiba
Prefecture.
A Chiba police official quoted Ichihashi as saying, ''I have no excuses and I
don't want to say anything (else).''
The police, however, added that Hawker and Ichihashi met for the first time
after he saw her near Funabashi Station in the eastern prefecture and asked her
to give him English conversation lessons.
In a brief press conference held at the Gyotoku police station, senior
detective Shuichi Nakamura voiced gratitude for receiving ''information from
across the country and overseas.'' He added that Osaka police officers
''questioned the man after a tip that there was a man resembling Ichihashi.''
Asked about the motive behind the murder, Nakamura said, ''Nothing has begun
about that.''
In Britain, Hawker's father, Bill, told reporters that he would like to report
the news at the grave of his daughter, while expressing his gratitude to the
Japanese police authorities and all the people involved in the investigation as
well as those who supported him and his family.
''We wanted justice and we have finally got it,'' he said. ''The battle is
over. We've worked tirelessly as a family...I can go down to my daughter's
grave to tell her.''
He was reported to have sobbed when told the news of Ichihashi's arrest at his
home in Coventry, according to the British tabloid The Sun. ''All we want to do
is see this man in court,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The case has attracted widespread public attention both at home and abroad as
Ichihashi, who media reports once suggested had killed himself, was found to be
alive and with a new look after undergoing plastic surgery on several
occasions.
Ichihashi escaped from police officers when they called at his apartment in
Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in March 2007 and then found Hawker's body inside a
sand-filled bathtub on the balcony.
The police later distributed fliers and offered a 10 million yen reward for
information leading to his whereabouts, a record high in the history of crime
investigations in Japan.
Hawker's family also visited Japan to ask for help in resolving the case, but
no significant progress had been made over the last two and a half years.
The case took a sudden turn when Ichihashi showed up at a clinic in Nagoya,
Aichi Prefecture, in late October for another round of plastic surgery. The
police soon released a photograph of his post-surgery face with double-fold
eyelids instead of single, a higher nose bridge and thinner lips, and it was
widely displayed.
It led to numerous further discoveries about him, including his attempt to have
another plastic surgery operation in Fukuoka Prefecture. He was also found to
have lived and worked at a construction company in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture,
for over a year up until this October before moving to Fukuoka city, where he
was spotted staying at an Internet cafe.
Ichihashi's parents told reporters at their home in the central Japan city of
Hashima, Gifu Prefecture, that they have been praying for Lindsay Hawker every
day and hope that their son would expiate his crime.
''His arrest is the first step for him to pay for his crime and be brought to
justice,'' Ichihashi's 58-year-old father said.
''There have been painful days for us,'' he added. ''I can't stand him having
had such surgery to try to get away with it...Running away must have added to
the pain and sorrow of the family of Miss Lindsay and of us.''
In London, commenting on the latest development of the case, a British Foreign
Office spokeswoman was quoted by the Press Association as saying, ''We are
grateful to the Japanese police for their efforts and we remain in close
contact with the Hawker family.''
==Kyodo
Police said they formally arrested Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, after seizing him in
Suminoe Ward, Osaka, in the evening and taking him into custody. He had been
wanted on a technical charge of abandoning the body of language school teacher
Lindsay Hawker, who was 22 at the time of her death, at his apartment in Chiba
Prefecture.
Osaka police received a call from an employee of a ferry operator at 6:44 p.m.
saying there was a man resembling the person depicted in a wanted poster
sitting on a bench on the second floor of a ferry terminal where boats depart
for the southern island of Okinawa.
Police officers went to the scene about four hours before the ferry left the
port and took the man to Suminoe Police Station, where he identified himself as
Ichihashi. The police arrested him after a fingerprint check confirmed his
identity.
Witnesses at the ferry terminal said Ichihashi was wearing a dark jacket, a
knitted cap and sunglasses. They added that he was taken away flanked by two
police officers and offered no resistance despite showing a little reluctance.
He was heard telling one officer, ''I'm Ichihashi.''
An official of the ferry company, A'Line Ferry Co., said Ichihashi first tried
to buy a ticket in Kobe for a ferry from Kobe to Okinawa but needed to change
his plan because there was no boat available for the southbound route from the
Hyogo Prefecture city.
The employee who attended to Ichihashi at the Kobe office became suspicious and
told colleagues at the Osaka terminal to be alert, according to the company.
The company then discussed whether to call the police if the suspicious-looking
man went to the Osaka terminal.
Ichihashi was later taken from the police station to be transferred to the
jurisdiction of the Chiba Prefecture police, who are expected to investigate
his possible involvement in the murder itself.
Nightly TV news programs on major Japanese networks showed a horde of reporters
and photographers swarming around Ichihashi as he was boarding a Tokyo-bound
bullet train at Shin-Osaka Station.
Similar scenes developed when the train arrived at Tokyo Station at 11:45 p.m.
before Ichihashi was transported in a car to Gyotoku Police Station in Chiba
Prefecture.
A Chiba police official quoted Ichihashi as saying, ''I have no excuses and I
don't want to say anything (else).''
The police, however, added that Hawker and Ichihashi met for the first time
after he saw her near Funabashi Station in the eastern prefecture and asked her
to give him English conversation lessons.
In a brief press conference held at the Gyotoku police station, senior
detective Shuichi Nakamura voiced gratitude for receiving ''information from
across the country and overseas.'' He added that Osaka police officers
''questioned the man after a tip that there was a man resembling Ichihashi.''
Asked about the motive behind the murder, Nakamura said, ''Nothing has begun
about that.''
In Britain, Hawker's father, Bill, told reporters that he would like to report
the news at the grave of his daughter, while expressing his gratitude to the
Japanese police authorities and all the people involved in the investigation as
well as those who supported him and his family.
''We wanted justice and we have finally got it,'' he said. ''The battle is
over. We've worked tirelessly as a family...I can go down to my daughter's
grave to tell her.''
He was reported to have sobbed when told the news of Ichihashi's arrest at his
home in Coventry, according to the British tabloid The Sun. ''All we want to do
is see this man in court,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The case has attracted widespread public attention both at home and abroad as
Ichihashi, who media reports once suggested had killed himself, was found to be
alive and with a new look after undergoing plastic surgery on several
occasions.
Ichihashi escaped from police officers when they called at his apartment in
Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in March 2007 and then found Hawker's body inside a
sand-filled bathtub on the balcony.
The police later distributed fliers and offered a 10 million yen reward for
information leading to his whereabouts, a record high in the history of crime
investigations in Japan.
Hawker's family also visited Japan to ask for help in resolving the case, but
no significant progress had been made over the last two and a half years.
The case took a sudden turn when Ichihashi showed up at a clinic in Nagoya,
Aichi Prefecture, in late October for another round of plastic surgery. The
police soon released a photograph of his post-surgery face with double-fold
eyelids instead of single, a higher nose bridge and thinner lips, and it was
widely displayed.
It led to numerous further discoveries about him, including his attempt to have
another plastic surgery operation in Fukuoka Prefecture. He was also found to
have lived and worked at a construction company in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture,
for over a year up until this October before moving to Fukuoka city, where he
was spotted staying at an Internet cafe.
Ichihashi's parents told reporters at their home in the central Japan city of
Hashima, Gifu Prefecture, that they have been praying for Lindsay Hawker every
day and hope that their son would expiate his crime.
''His arrest is the first step for him to pay for his crime and be brought to
justice,'' Ichihashi's 58-year-old father said.
''There have been painful days for us,'' he added. ''I can't stand him having
had such surgery to try to get away with it...Running away must have added to
the pain and sorrow of the family of Miss Lindsay and of us.''
In London, commenting on the latest development of the case, a British Foreign
Office spokeswoman was quoted by the Press Association as saying, ''We are
grateful to the Japanese police for their efforts and we remain in close
contact with the Hawker family.''
==Kyodo
