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.
