The mothers of British and Australian women who were slain in Japan, in 2000 and 1992, told the Tokyo District Court on Thursday that Joji Obara, who stands accused of raping and fatally drugging their daughters, should be sentenced to life in prison.
Jane Steare, the mother of Lucie Blackman, demanded that the court "hand down the most severe sentence in its power." Life imprisonment is the heaviest punishment a court may give to Obara based on the charges he faces.
Steare tearfully described her impression when she saw Lucie's dismembered body, which was discovered by police in February 2001 in a cave on the shore in Miura, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, just meters away from one of Obara's residences.