CHIBA — Tatsuya Ichihashi, arrested in connection with the murder of a British woman in 2007, on Tuesday afternoon ate a meal for the first time since his arrest Nov. 10, police sources said.
Ichihashi ate all the food given to him for lunch, officers at Gyotoku Police Station, a local unit of the Chiba Prefectural Police, said.
Later in the day, the Chiba District Public Prosecutor's Office and police moved him from the Gyotoku station to a detention facility in Chiba Prison, where doctors and nurses are available around the clock, out of concern over his health.
Ichihashi was able to walk without assistance, according to the officers.
He reportedly only drank water and tea prior to Tuesday. He was fed intravenously on Nov. 16.
Ichihashi, 30, has refused to speak to prosecutors since his arrest in connection with the killing of Lindsay Ann Hawker, an English teacher at the now-defunct Nova conversation school. Her body was discovered in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in March 2007.
So far he has been charged with abandoning a dead body. Prosecutors are trying to get Ichihashi to explain how Hawker's body ended up at his apartment.
Ichihashi eluded police for more than 2 1/2 years, and the Hawker murder case drew intense media attention both here and in Britain.
Ichihashi fled the apartment in his bare feet when police officers went to question him about Hawker, who had been reported missing a few days earlier.
The arrest came after a surgeon released a photo showing Ichihashi's face after plastic surgery. Police were alerted to his whereabouts when a ferry company employee saw him at a terminal in Osaka.