12:33pm UK, Tuesday November 10, 2009

Huw Borland, Sky News Online

A fugitive wanted over the murder of a British teacher whose body was found in a sand-filled bathtub in Japan has been arrested.

Ichihashi and what he is thought to look like after surgery

Japanese police said Tatsuya Ichihashi, the only suspect in the killing of 22-year-old Lindsay Ann Hawker, was apprehended in Osaka.

Her father William Hawker tearfully told broadcaster TBS: “I hope that authorities deal with him in an appropriate manner. My nightmare is finally over.”

The English-language teacher’s remains were discovered in the bathtub on a balcony of the fugitive’s apartment, near Tokyo, in March 2007.

Sky News home affairs correspondent Mark White said: “It’s believed the body had been there for some time. He’d (Ichihashi) fled the scene and had not, obviously, been seen for a long period of time.”

Before the arrest, police revealed Ichihashi, 30, underwent plastic surgery to alter his appearance and released post-operation pictures of the man.

For the past 13 months, the suspect had been working on a construction site in Osaka and was trying to get a passport to leave the country, reports said.

Victim Lindsay Ann Hawker had been teaching in Japan

Ichihashi’s mother recently made an emotional television appeal for her son to surrender.

Speaking on the private Fuji television network, she sobbed: “It’s mum, Tatsuya. Dad and mum have decided to speak about our feelings, although we know you won’t like this.

“Please go to Gyotoku police station and tell them the truth. Please.”

Miss Hawker’s family repeatedly visited Japan after the murder and voiced frustration at police for failing to catch the suspect.

White said: “The family had been… very critical of the way in which they believed the Japanese authorities had been very lax in their investigation, had not been pursuing it with the vigour they would have liked to have seen them pursuing it.”

Despite the criticism, he added that Japan’s police did increase a reward for information leading to Ichihashi’s arrest and “it did appear the net had been closing on this man”.