Press Releases

Shinya Oguma, the man who has been leading the Japanese police inquiry into the murder of Midlands' school teacher Lindsay Hawker, has been replaced – just days after an interview with the BBC.

Lindsay's body was found in a bath of sand and soil in a Tokyo apartment in March 2007, but the prime suspect in the case has never been caught.

Programme makers from BBC Inside Out went to Japan at the end of February to film a special half-hour edition, to be broadcast on Wednesday 11 March 2009.

Reporter Matthew Gull was granted an interview with Japanese police on the condition that every single question was submitted and vetted in advance.

Despite the prime suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, escaping from nine police officers in bare feet, Mr Oguma told Matthew that his officers had done their job properly.

Mr Oguma said: "When the investigators visited the flat they didn't know what had happened to the victim and they even didn't know the victim had been murdered. Therefore the investigators faced a difficult judgement about how to treat it. Under the circumstances I think those investigators acted according to the regulations."

But the BBC investigation has brought fresh questions about the effectiveness of the Japanese police inquiry.

Inside Out tracked down Yoshiaki Ishizuka, the taxi driver who drove Lindsay and Ichihashi back to his apartment on the day she was killed. Ishizuka's evidence that, despite the rain, he was asked to stop a long way short of Ichihashi's home, raises concerns over the police belief that Lindsay's murder was not pre-meditated.

Mr Ishizuka said: "This is the road I took on that day with these two people. In the car they were not talking at all. Along here he (Ichihashi) said, here is fine. The light was green like now, so I just crossed the street and then I stopped the car and here I dropped them. He said wait four or five minutes but that day was rainy and it was quite busy, so I couldn't wait for him so I just gave him a receipt. Like this I stopped the car."

When asked how he could be sure that he had dropped the pair off in that location, rather than outside Ichihashi's apartment, Yoshiaki Ishizuka replied: "That’s because I told the police at the time... that's why I clearly still remember it now."

The taxi driver's account also contradicts reports that both Ichihashi and Lindsay were dropped off right outside the apartment, in full view of its CCTV cameras.

But, despite these inconsistencies, the police have never shown any of the reported CCTV footage to the taxi driver.

The police have refused to discuss the CCTV footage and initially would not discuss their reasons for replacing Mr Oguma as head of the investigation. Eventually they told the BBC that reason was the "regular transfer of police officers".

The Inside Out team also spoke to Bill Hawker, Lindsay's father, who told them: "Every day is hard for us... my life will never be the same again. We want justice for Lindsay... each day goes by and sometimes I feel like never getting up. But we have to keep getting up... have to keep finding a little bit more about how this could have happened."

Mr Hawker is off to Tokyo again soon, to mark the second anniversary of Lindsay's death. He says he hates going back, but now it is the only practical thing he can do: "I'd like to see him (Ichihashi) brought to justice before I take my natural course. That's all I want; to see him caught. Look him in the face and say why did you do that to my beautiful daughter?"

The Inside Out team also track down witnesses involved in the case including an old college friend of Ichihashi's, who describes how they used to follow girls together.

Inside Out goes out on BBC One (West Midlands) at 7.30pm on Wednesday 11 March and is also available nationally on BBC iPlayer and Sky channel 979.

BG