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The Lucie Blackman Verdict

I hadn't heard this story, but I read the BBC link. There are so many violent crimes in the world - what is wrong with people? Why do these things happen?
 
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She has criticised him for accepting 100 million yen (£450,000) from a friend of the defendant last year

Taken from the first link...

As a parent of three children I can not imagine taking money from someone even remotely connected to, God forbid, my child's suspected murderer.

I live in Japan and while it may be commonplace for people to offer money in situations like this one, there is no law stating that a person must accept it.

I am curious about the reasons why he did and also what he planned to or plans to use the money for. If he donates it to charity in memory of his daughter or some other noble cause I could understand it.

Does anyone know or have any information about this part of the story?
 
What I got from the news reports in Japan was that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to win a conviction. That happens all the time in the U.S. If I were the parents of Lucie Blackman, I wouldn't be pleased either. Still, the animal will be put away for good. They can take some solace in that.
 
I never understood quite why he accepted the money either, Obeika, just says he accepted the money to support his family, and for her trust fund.

I found an in depth article about the death of the Australian lady on another group I belong to if you are interested in reading it.
 
I never understood quite why he accepted the money either, Obeika, just says he accepted the money to support his family, and for her trust fund.

I wonder if he is in such financial straights that he needed the money to support his family. Also I can not image though why he would need a trust fund for a person that died.


I found an in depth article about the death of the Australian lady on another group I belong to if you are interested in reading it

I am interested as in all honesty I never realized that there was another foreign woman that was killed by this man. Do you happen to know, or anyone here for that matter, why she didn't get the same coverage in the media as the Blackman case did?
 
Mrs Steare has also released a statement she said was signed by her ex-husband in September 2006, which questioned "key elements of the prosecution's case".

It referred to the cause of Lucie Blackman's death being unknown and that Obara's DNA was not found on her body.
For Christ's sake!! She was chopped into 8 pieces!? :(

What a sick sad world.
 
There is a new book out about a Brit expat murdered in Tokyo and the Japanese justice system: "Dear Judge Ichiro". Interesting coincidence.
I really didn't expect Obara to be acquitted on that charge. I bet the judge would have been more inclined to convict if the other charges didn't stick. Love to see inside the head of a judge. I suspect it's pretty much the same as a normal human being.
 
What I got from the news reports in Japan was that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to win a conviction. That happens all the time in the U.S. If I were the parents of Lucie Blackman, I wouldn't be pleased either. Still, the animal will be put away for good. They can take some solace in that.

Unfortunately not, ArmandV. I've read various reports on the exact dates, but with parole for good behaviour, and time already served, he could be out in five years (the soonest that's been reported so far is three, the latest potential that's been reported is six).

Obeika said:
I am interested as in all honesty I never realized that there was another foreign woman that was killed by this man. Do you happen to know, or anyone here for that matter, why she didn't get the same coverage in the media as the Blackman case did?

There are excellent links about most aspects of the case on the BBC if you dig around, but it does take some doing unfortunately. The link for the Carita Ridgway story is here.

A quote from that link:

He drugged her with chloroform and then videotaped himself raping her.

The Australian lapsed into a coma and died of liver failure in Tokyo's Hideshima Hospital.

Obara managed to persuade the authorities that she had died of natural causes and he had done everything in his power to help her.

Carita's parents were suspicious but, faced with the official report which seemed to blame food poisoning, they accepted her death.

The police did not search his flat or find the video, which clearly showed him using chloroform while raping her.

The truth took more than eight years to emerge.

This evidence was uncovered during the investigation for Lucie.

The Blackmans, led by father Tim, created an unprecedented and monumental
level of publicity both in Japan and the UK after Lucie disappeared, in the face of an apparent lack of action by the police to properly investigate her disappearance.

They established an office in Tokyo, 'hijacked' the visit of the British Foreign Secretary to assist their cause, and eventually managed to get Tony Blair involved, as well as an appeal by Richard Branson. It's very likely that without all this, Obara would never have been arrested. More about that here

The issue of the 'condolence' money is very very interesting and controversial.

The first thing to say is that the Lucie Blackman Trust is a 'charity' that aims to raise awareness of personal safety abroad for young travelling women. Tim Blackman has appeared on TV here in the UK a number of times to that end. There are one or two questions though about the accounts of the 'charity' so far.

I don't doubt that Tim Blackman has used a huge amount of money in his repeated trips to Tokyo and the cost of his own investigations and everything else. I wouldn't be surprised if it ran into the hundreds of thousands of pounds. It is purely speculation, but perhaps he really needs some of that money to cover serious debts?

However, I have to agree that it was the wrong thing to do to accept the money, both morally and in terms of jeopardising the conviction. While the Judge said that the payment hadn't affected the verdict, there is I believe a strong sense that such a payment somehow makes amends for a wrong. It's also been reported that a so-called 'condolence' payment is usually made after a verdict has been made, and not before.

Lucie's mother (the parents have been divorced for many years) was also offered the same payment, and declined it. She's said that their lawyers made it quite clear that to accept may alter the outcome. It's also been suggested that she may sue Tim for accepting the money on behalf of the Blackman family, when it was only he that accepted, and against her wishes.

The final controversy is that apparently around the time of the payment, Mr Blackman signed a document questioning some of the prosecution evidence, and accepting that DNA proved no link between Obara and Lucie. Again, it has been suggested that this is no coincidence, and that such a document was probably a condition of the payment being made.
 
this was the link i was going to post; http//www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2007/04/20/1176697090797.html

but made of stone, posted in great detail about it before me!
 
I too have read a lot of reports on this, and threads on other forums discussing the topic (some of the comments there made me ill to be honest!)

I think it's sickening, especially since Obara could be out in as little as five years.

What I don't understand about the whole case is that the police went to his apartment a couple of days after Lucie went missing, saw cement there, he was acting suspiciously and wouldn't let them in (within his civil rights I'm sure) - but they DIDN'T apply for a search warrant! Now, I'm not sure of the regulations on obtaining warrants in Japan but surely if he was a suspect in Lucie's disappearance they could have gotten one?

If they had done that and a thorough forensic search of the apartment, I have no doubt he would have been convicted.

His lawyer is filing an appeal against his conviction and I read somewhere else that as there is no "double jeopardy" concept in Japan, if new evidence were to be discovered, Obara could be retried for the murder... highly unlikely though since he seems to have covered his tracks well and has proven that he is capable of bare faced lies, enough to escape a conviction!
 
Many thanks for posting that link, thistle, but it doesn't seem to work for me, could you please check it?

storeyinallinanyways, firstly welcome to Jref, and thanks for your contribution too, you raise some excellent points indeed.

What I don't understand about the whole case is that the police went to his apartment a couple of days after Lucie went missing, saw cement there, he was acting suspiciously and wouldn't let them in (within his civil rights I'm sure) - but they DIDN'T apply for a search warrant! Now, I'm not sure of the regulations on obtaining warrants in Japan but surely if he was a suspect in Lucie's disappearance they could have gotten one?

I know, it's very surprising, and shocking in that they may have been able to catch him red-handed. The news reports I read said that when he refused to let the police in, they asked their superior what to do by radio, and were told to just leave. We have no information about why they didn't apply for the warrant later and return to the scene. We do know, though, that the police failed to find any traces of blood or other forensic evidence in that room when they did finally search it.

Now this is just my personal feeling here, but my unease at this particular aspect of the case also resonates with the feelings expressed at the time by Tim Blackman that the police already knew about Obara, had a lot of allegations against him, but were reluctant to go after him. From what i've read, I certainly can't discount the theory that he had people 'fixing' things for him at all sorts of levels.

In any case, I believe I read that concrete was found at Obara's apartment, so the one thing that really perplexes is that there's been no report of any chemical match-up being attempted, even that it was inconclusive (please please correct me if i'm wrong here).

Add to that the despair at the sentence in the Japanese press, and the complaints by the Blackmans afterwards that the prosecution didn't present all the evidence properly at the trial, and perhaps Tim's criticisms of the prosecution approach were valid after all (though I stil can't comprehend why they came at the same time as he received all that money)???

A final point - i've only come across the idea that 'double-jeopardy' doesn't exist in Japan on message boards or forums, can anybody here confirm that for sure?
 
Thanks Mos! Happy to be here!

I find it interesting that it was only after serious lobbying by Tim Blackman and Tony Blair that the police actually took the case seriously, even though they apparently knew Obara was involved in unsavoury acts. It certainly would seem that he has friends in the right places and definitely enough money to keep them happy...

As for the double jeopardy concept... not quite sure where the people who posted what I read (other forums) got their info from because it's a constitutional right!!! Sorry if I caused confusion with my previous post!

"Article 39:
No person shall be held criminally liable for an act which was lawful at the time it was committed, or of which he had been acquitted, nor shall he be placed in double jeopardy."

Hm, seems I can't post the link cos I don't have enough posts yet, but it's easy to google...
 
Before jumping to too many conclusions about the results of the verdict and possible appeals process, does anyone here know exactly what all the charges against him were in the first place when he was arrested?

Also what he was charged with what the prosecutors actually charged him in court?

As many may know he may have been charged with certain offenses but had others either added on or taken off before actually being taken to trial.
 
A final point - i've only come across the idea that 'double-jeopardy' doesn't exist in Japan on message boards or forums, can anybody here confirm that for sure?

I have no knowledge of legal issues, but looked it up and found that "double-jeopardy" is ヒ?ェナス窶凪?「sツ催??板 (ichijifusairi) in Japanese.
According to Japanese Wikipedia, it is stipulated by Article 39 of Constitution of Japan.
一事不再理 - Wikipedia
(available only in Japanese language)

Here's the Wiki on Constitution of Japan, and "prohibition of double jeopardy" is found among the "individual rights"
Constitution of Japan - Wikipedia

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Ah, I seem to have overlooked the post by storeyinallinanyways, which is much to the point... silly me!
:joyful:
 
Japanese justice
* Japan has one of the world's highest conviction rates, with more than 99 per cent of all defendants convicted. Confessions are still relied on heavily and failure to admit a crime is frowned on, making Obara (who denied his guilt right to the end) very unusual. While Japan incarcerates its citizens at less than half the rate of Britain, prison time is notoriously harsh. Inmates are kept isolated and mostly in silence, and forced to obey hundreds of military-like rules. Strip searches are common, as are beatings. One report in 2004 said there had been nearly 250 suspicious deaths in Japanese prisons in the previous decade. Police say Obara is unlikely to be released unless he becomes terminally ill in prison. "In Japan a life sentence is a life sentence," said one officer.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2483834.ece

The prison system may not be easy-going in Japan, however the officer told a lie, "Japan a life sentence is a life sentence". Not all prisoners, but some have been paroled even after he/she got life sentence. And the info is not going to be notified to victims or the public.
I am scared if the killer will be paroled and will live happily in his Asian community where the killer's friend can pay huge amount of money.
 
I am scared if the killer will be paroled and will live happily in his Asian community where the killer's friend can pay huge amount of money.

Pipokun you do realize that the "killer" was Japanese which means that he will be living here in Japan.:(
 
thistle- thank you so very much for posting your revised link to that article, it's fascinating reading, and fills in an awful lot of detail about the Ridgway case, which I hadn't read before. The circumstantial links to Obara and Lucie are there, as plain as can be. One example - the strange phonecall in both cases a day or two after they disappeared.

It's particularly interesting to note the offer to the direct family of Carita of substantial monies once again from Obara's people - isn't it amazing how a supposedly-bankrupt individual (who is therefore not able to be sued in the Civil Courts) can have had over a million pounds (over $2 million) offered on his behalf in 'condolence' money to the families!!!!

And Storey-chan, I couldn't agree more - there have been mutterings for a long while that the police were reluctant to go in with full force - even knowing the stories about Obara - supposedly because they didn't want to get involved in the murky business of the seedier side of foreign hostesses in Roppongi, and the circles Obara mixed in (Yakuza or not, we can only assume things for ourselves, I think).

Many thanks to Undrentide-chan and Storey-chan for bringing us the knowledge about the Japanese constitution at this point. It seems that, indeed, Obara can't be tried for the same twice crimes in Japan, alas. But, it brings to the fore all the more Obeika-san's question (and forgive the paraphrase) 'what were the charges in the trial? I'm unsure on this, and will have to go away and research a little, but i have been under the impression that he was charged with something akin to manslaughter, and disposal of a body. I may very well be wrong here, can anyone find a reliable link? (If not I shall do so)

As for Pipokun's contribution, isn't it obvious from his quote that he was referring to parole in Japan? (And by the way, many thanks for you comment)
 
Can't find the name of the "friend" who paid Tim Blackman the money. Maybe it can't be reported for legal reasons?

Obara was charged with raping and fatally assaulting Lucie - that was the police charge but I understand it could have changed by the time it got to trial? He pleaded not guilty...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Key dates in Lucie investigation

The prosecutors are seeking an appeal of the decision, and it seems that Lucie's parents (divorced) are at each others throats over the payment he accepted and also a statment he issued saying that Obara's DNA was not found on or in Lucie. Seemingly, the combination of these could have influenced the decision of the court.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Kent | Appeal to follow Blackman verdict
 
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