Briton's body found in Japan bath

A woman found buried in sand in a bathtub in Japan has been named by police as 22-year-old missing Briton Lindsay Ann Hawker.

Colleagues identified the body of the English teacher, from Brandon near Coventry, found on a fourth-floor flat balcony in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo.

The cause of death is not yet known but there were bruises on the victim's face, the BBC's Chris Hogg said.

Police are hunting a man who fled the apartment in Chiba prefecture.
Disappearance

The BBC's correspondent said the teacher was reported missing by her flatmates on Monday afternoon after she disappeared from her home on Sunday.

Local media reported that Miss Hawker, who worked at the Koiwa school in Tokyo, had been in Japan for only a few months and was a popular teacher, he added.

They said she had gone to the apartment for the first time on Saturday to give English lessons to 28-year-old Tatsuya Ichihashi.

She had left details of the address at home before she disappeared and police are now trying to locate Mr Ichihashi.

A handbag and a passport thought to belong to the victim were found near the apartment.

The Nova language school in London, which employed Miss Hawker, said in a statement that she had graduated from university last year and had joined its teaching team on 25 October.

"She took her job seriously and put every effort into it. She was trying to get used to Japan. We are very sorry that this has happened," it said.

The school was co-operating fully with the investigation, it added.

George Fisher, the headmaster of King Henry VIII School in Coventry where Miss Hawker was a pupil until 2003, said the staff were very upset by her death.

"I knew Lindsay well, she was a very popular student, and the school and staff are devastated," he said.

BBC News

Tuesday 27, March 2007