Man jailed for killing Lindsay Hawker loses appeal

The man who was jailed for killing a Coventry language teacher in Japan has lost an appeal against his life sentence.

33-year-old Tatsuya Ichihashi was jailed last year for raping and murdering Lindsay Hawker. Her body was discovered in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of his apartment in Tokyo in 2007.

Lindsay was 22 years old and from Brandon near Coventry. She went out to Japan to work as an English teacher. She was last seen alive giving Ichihashi an English lesson in a coffee shop. Her parents Bill and Julia Hawker have long campaigned for justice for their daughter. They travelled out to Japan last year for Ichihashi's trial.

After her death, Ichihashi went on the run and managed to evade police for two years, before he was finally caught at a ferry terminal in Osaka, Western Japan.

Ichihashi was seeking a reduction in his life sentence. He admitted killing Lindsay Hawker but denied murder, saying he never intended to kill her. His lawyers claim his life sentence was too harsh, but this has been rejected.