The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld Tatsuya Ichihashi's life sentence for raping and murdering English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker, ruling he intended to kill her.
"The defendant killed the victim with selfish motives of satisfying his libido and hiding his criminal act" of raping her, presiding Judge Yoshinobu Iida said in handing down the ruling.
The focus of the high court trial was whether Ichihashi, 33, had known his left arm was under Hawker's neck. Ichihashi's lawyers argued he had not and therefore he did not intend to kill her in March 2007 in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.