Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Laura and Angel and this is crick Divers.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, everybody, welcome to this picture on episode Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So we're in the world die away for today's paper.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Japan in Japan.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, we have been in Japan before, but this is
a bit different because this is actually the victim was
actually a British person. But the crime is in Japan.
And what is it called the missing Hostess? Let's dive
in so. Lucy Jane Blackman was born on the first
of September nineteen seventy eight and she was from Seven
(00:52):
Oaks in Kent, England. She worked for British Air Raised
as a flight attendant, but the constant fly and left
her exhausted and she decided to quit. So in early
twenty twenty one year old Lucy and her friend Louise
Phillips decided to go to Japan. Lucy has some debts
that she want to get paid off and she knew
that she can make some good money out there, so
(01:14):
they headed to Tokyo, which and they found somewhere to stay
in Rapongi, which is famous for its popular nightlife. It's
mainly like a sort of twist placed rather than a
place for Japanese people to sort of settle like a
busy like sort of all the tourists and the nightclubs
and everything like that. It's you know, it's not a
(01:35):
place where you sell over with your family. It's got
like hundreds of bars and clubs. So there's like and
there's plenty of jobs available for people from overseas. So
Lucy was soon emailing home to say that she had
found work in the Casablanca Club. Her friend Samantha had
asked what job she was doing, and Lucy had said
she was hostess, and so Samantha was kind of like,
(01:58):
that sounds really dodgy. Yeah, Lucy's like, no, no, it's fine.
Like you go and you have a drink work customer
and you just talk to them. You're just there for
company and you get paid in relation to how many
customers request you. So Lucy then told Samantha that, yeah,
you do get the odd dodgy one, but you know,
I know how to handle them, so don't worry. So basically,
(02:19):
being a hostess, it's like being a white geisha. Yeah,
so and like so we know what geishas are. It's like,
it's not it's not prostitution. Anyway, it's not prostitution. It's
basically just company, like you know, for a man requests
the company, and apparently it's a bit of an achievement
for the Japanese men to be seen with a beautiful
(02:39):
Western girl. But as I said, it is innocent. It's
just drinks. There's no sexual no, it's like drinking, you know,
chat and it's basically just sitting having a drink with
a Japanese man and listen listening to him talk. And
Lucy said it was usually pretty boring because this guy
would just be like what going on because he didn't
necessarily have anybody else that he could talk to, like
(03:01):
maybe some rich businessman, and didn't have a wife or
a girlfriend, so he's like just want some female company
and just somebody to talk to, Okay. So part of
Lucy's job was also to meet customers for dinner dates
before her shift began and and sorry, in hostess clubs,
these dates are known as dohans, So the purpose of
(03:25):
us would basically just to go for dinner somewhere and
then the hostess would bring her date back to the club.
So basically the club was making money, so they'd got
a dohan bring them back, and they would always to
spend their money in the in the club and in
the Casa Blanca club where Lucy worked, girls would be
sacked if they didn't arrange enough dohans, so it was
(03:48):
quite pressure there. Yeah, So Lucy mentioned to her friends
Amantha that they had like a scoreboard so they could
see which hostesses were doing the best and the worst,
and Lucy was actually near the bottom. So she was
worried about it because she wanted to earn more money.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
The dinner dates would be like all on like the
one night or how many dinner dates can you have and.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Lead up to going to a club? What do you mean, Well,
you said that they had to get the most like
they were.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, they were too, Like there will be a different
one each each night. It wouldn't be like dinner once,
That's what I mean. Like I'm assuming that meant like
over a week sort of or whatever. I don't know,
just over a certain amount of the amount of time.
They would just have a scoreboard that just said who
are like how many people had had? So Lucy was
near the bottom and she was worried about it because
(04:32):
she wanted to earn more money, and she didn't want
to lose her job. So Louise is her friend that
she went with. She was also working in the same club,
and obviously she didn't want be separated from her as well.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
They wanted to be working together.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So Lucy and the other hostesses were watched over by
the mamasan. So of course I didn't know what that was.
I looked up according to Wikipedia and mama san is
usually a woman in a position of authority, especially one
in charge of a Geisha house or a bar or
a nightclub in East Asia. So the mamazon would keep
an eye on who the hostesses were meeting and who
(05:05):
they were bringing into the club, you know, just keeping
an eye on everything basically. So when Lucy's mum told
her how concerned she was, Lucy had said, it's perfectly safe.
The mamazon knew the men. They were regulars and you know,
they went when they went to dinner, they would walk
to the restaurant and back to the club, so that
it was always nearby. There was never like getting into
(05:27):
cars or anything like that. But her mum was still like,
I don't really like this, no, So on Saturday, the
first of July two thousand, which was just eight weeks
after arriving in Tokyo, Lucy got ready to see a
customer that she'd met at the club. Her friend Louise
said Lucy had agreed to meet this man for a coffee,
(05:50):
but she said she'd only be an hour. So just
before five pm, Lucy phoned Leuise say, right, I've met
my date. But it was a hot afternoon, so Lucy said, like,
we're we're going to go to the coast or like,
so she was driving her to the coast okay, so
about and so she's like, she was just letting her
know that she was going to be more than an hour.
She wasn't getting you know, because original she was just
(06:10):
going for a coffee. So so she was letting her
friend know. About about six forty five, Lucy phoned Louise
again and she said, right, okay, I'm just leaving now,
so I'll I'll be back within the hour. And she
said she had a good time and her date had
given her mobile phone. Right, So, Lucy and Louise had plans.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
To go out that night.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So Louise was like, but are you going to be
back in time? You know we're going out. We've got
plans and she's like, yeah, yeah, but honestly, I'm leaving now,
I'm on my way back. I'll be back before eight,
because it's of course seven that she'd phone, and so
I said right bye. Unfortunately, that was the last time
anyone heard from Lucy, so she wasn't actually working that
(06:54):
night then, No, she was off that night.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So I wonder why we should go for dates on
the nights that she's not working, because I thought.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Maybe that maybe that was just a bit of an
extra you know, like because well they're just out there
air money and you know, they're they're not legally working
out there, so it's not like so they can sort
of take on extra extra work and stuff or something.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, sounds like it. So over the next couple.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Of days, Louise got more and more worried about Lucy
because you obviously hadn't turned up. She never heard from her,
so early on the Monday evening, she got a phone
call from a Japanese man. He asked to speak to
Louise Phillips and she said, yeah, this is Louise, and
he replied, Lucy can't talk to you at the moment.
He went on to tell her that Lucy was okay,
but she had joined a new religious group and she
(07:43):
wouldn't be coming home. And Louise was like, I want
to speak to Lucy, like put her on the phone,
and he said no, she doesn't want to see anyone,
and he hung up.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So Louise was like, right, enough is enough?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know, I need to do something about this, So
she phoned Lucy's mum, Jane. Like Jane said, she was
literally just wrapping up a present to send to Lucy.
She'd got some shoes and some sweeties and she was
like just about to walk out the door and take
it to the post office when the phone and dry
and she answered, of course it was Louise, and like
Louise was hysterical and all she could say is Lucy missing.
(08:16):
And Jane said, her legs buckled, and she was like,
I've got to go. I'm gonna be sick. So in
the days, I know, can you imagine getting that phone call,
especially like so far away from home. Exactly exactly So,
in the days following Lucy's disappearance, our family and friends
in England grew increasingly anxious. Jane was obviously our mum,
(08:39):
was obviously constantly phoning Louise to see if there was
any news and try and get as much information as
possible about what could have happened. She also phoned the embassy,
but I didn't really kind of, I don't think they
were much help, like, shouldn't see me, get any for
any for further forward or the embassy. So Lucy's twenty
year old sister, Sophie, she decided, right, I'm I'm flying
(09:00):
over there.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I'm bringing my sister home.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And her mum, Jane did say, quote in her wonderful innocence,
I think she thought she was going to walk down
the street and see this blonde girl and go there
we are, there's Lucy. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's
what I think she felt she was going to do.
And to be honest, I don't blame her. She probably
thought Lucy's fine, she's just lost for something, you know,
because we all think that bad things don't happen to us,
(09:24):
they happen to other people. And Lucy's ex boyfriend Jamie
offered to travel with Sophie, so they must you know,
they've split up, but they're obviously you know, it's still care.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
About her daughter to fly out there.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, maybe because she was going with Jamie as well.
She was going with a man like, so she had
somebody with her and more worried, I know, but she
were They didn't know what to do, like they had
they were like, well, now that's happening, we need to
go and find her our sister.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Or daughter, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So within twenty four hours they arrived in Tokyo, and
they saw just how dawn in the task of finding her.
Maybe I don't think they realized how big Tokyo is,
Like Jamie said, it was just like really really foreign,
like you're in such a big place, but it's like
condensed such a small area.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Like you're on highways at like fifty.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Foot in the air going over buildings and yeah, and
he said there's a huge problem with the language barrier
as well, like you know, you can go to Europe
on holiday and get away with speaking English, but here
they just didn't understand you. So I think I don't
think they realized, you know, when Sophie was like, I'm
going to find myself, but I'm going to bring her home,
I do think that. Yeah, I think it was I
(10:36):
think it was probably a shock to them. I mean,
I mean, I don't know I've never really thought about
it before. I've never thought about how big Tokyo is
or what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
I mean, I've seen obviously things on your TV about
how busy it always looks, and there does look amazing,
but never been there personally, So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I just I don't think they realized how don't
and it was going to be so obviously that was
for straight. But what Jamie said was more frustrating was
the attitude of the Japanese police.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I did get the police had been.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Formed, like he said, they just they just didn't seem
to be bothered, and like him and Sophie just felt
like they were just getting nowhere. After a week, they
had found no clues as to where Lucy could be.
They were going to the polaystation every day, and they
were basically just told to go away. Because Lucy was
twenty one, she was allowed to go off by herself
(11:25):
as she wanted to.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But again, this is when I always go back to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
If if it's something out of character that you've done
and your friends and family are saying you're missing, you
probably are missing.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Like you know, they know that this is not what
you like, especially British women in Japan.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Come on, you mean you've not just gone off and
not contact people. I mean, I think most people know
in this day and age that you keep in contact
with your friends and family because they would be worried
of course if you're not going in contact. And some
some random Japanese man his phone your friend up and said, no,
she just doesn't want to talk to you, and.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
She just joined her religious count say red flags, I mean,
what does Well, obviously not to the place.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So the only thing that they managed to achieve was
to get Lucy listed as a missing person on a postcard,
which basically just went in a big file of missing persons.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But luckily a British reporter did.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There was a small article about Lucy in the newspaper.
So this British reporter saw the article in the Japanese newspaper.
It was a really small story that just said a
British tourist, unnamed, twenty one year old woman had gone
missing and her family were anxious about her whereabouts and
we're looking for her.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So luckily, because.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It was a British reporter who worked over there, and
he looked she was like right, okay, like I'm going
to look into this, and he said it became clear
that there was a lot more, a lot more to it,
and once the press got a hold of it, the
story quickly escalated into one of the biggest that summer.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So he got it going.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
So Lucy's dad, Tim, was mum and dad. Her mum
and dad were divorced, her mum and Matt and somebody
else him, but Lucy's dad Tim, just because it kind
of comes into play later on, he flew out to
Tokyo to drum up the press attention further and within
two weeks we've been missing.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
She was headline news.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Tim and Sophie would like sit up every night thinking
of ways to get Lucy on primetime television, like in
the morning, and they had a press conference at five am,
and all this press would turn up and her picture
ended up on the front page of the newspapers. But
it's just sad that it took like a British reporter
and our family to go and get this done.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Like it wasn't the police that got that.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
If they hadn't have done that, nothing would have happened. Yeah,
So there was there was lots of speculation that Lucy
had been kidnapped by a cult and her family did
actually think that she was being held somewhere against her will,
but they just weren't that would be the police that
we're going to be the people that would suddenly find
her an a warehouse somewhere in Tokyo and bring her
(14:05):
back to them. They felt it would be more likely
be a tip off from a member of the public
that would find her. So that's why they were so
determined to keep her in the public eye. So the
family's press campaign one support from Tokyo's close knit community
of British expats. So a businessman called Hugh shake Shaft
happened to see Tim and Sopha in a restaurant, so
(14:27):
he approached him and said, look, while you're here, you're
going to need like logistical help.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You're getting need.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Office, like an office, telephone lines, facts, internet. You need
to get this set up as an office to stand
any chance of succeeding. So he offered them an office
in his building. So, because he was a busin spanning
office at his same company, gave them an office, gave
him a dedicated phone line like a hot line thing
for information for the public. That's what I mean that's
not the police that's doing all that.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I mean, that's just total you know, by chance, he's
just been in a restaurant he recognized them. Yeah, and
you know, actually genuinely being a nice person, because I
mean that could have been scolary.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But no, it's all set up for them. Just genuinely
wanted to help. So lots of calls came into the hotline,
but none of them were in use, and for a
long time Tim and Sophie had no idea what happened
to Lucy. So they held another press conference and press
confidence and recruited as many high profile people as possible.
Tim persuaded the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to
(15:23):
mention the case when he was on he was on
an official visit to Japan, so he mentioned the case.
So they've got him to mention the case to the
Japanese Prime Minister yoshirol More. Richard Branson, the founder of
the Virgin Group. He put out a TV appeal and
they also approached the British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who
(15:43):
was visiting Tokyo at the time, you know, to get
Lucy's case out there so as you can imagine all
this put pressure on the Japanese authorities. So the Japanese
Prime Minister came down hard on the place and told
them they needed to find Lucy and solve this case.
That's what it took.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I know, that's just so awful.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
I mean's a very large place.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But I mean, yeah, seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You can't just be like, especially when the family is
over here drumming up so much press, interest and ever,
you can Lucy are still sitting back.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Going post, putting a file and then forget about her.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Well they did until until the Prime minister, I mean
the Prime minister actually had to come down on them.
So that's when the police decided they needed to step up,
and they agreed to pour more resources into the case,
and they assigned eighty officers to the hunt for Lucy.
So they had the resources if they can spare eighty officers.
(16:47):
But if the family were hoping they would get more
information from detectives, they were wrong. The police just wouldn't
tell tim what they were doing because they didn't want
to give away details of their investigation. Lucy's mum, Jane,
was concerned at the jack police weren't following up on
vital information and the precious time was being lost she was.
She was suggesting things like the fact that Lucy had
(17:07):
a mobile phone, can you trace it? Where they're any
security cameras around? Like have we checked them if they have, like.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
The places she was last seen, and like, you know,
got an actual official recognition of this.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Guy that she's with.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, the police told her that they couldn't answer her questions.
So then in August, as the search entered its second month,
the police received a letter written in English and signed
from Lucy. Her family knew that wasn't Lucy's signature, but
it did give them hope that she was still alive
and that she was being held against her will. But
(17:44):
even with this letter, the police were still no closer
to finding Lucy or an abductor. Jane hired a British
private detective and he started, so he obviously went over there.
He started at the club because you know, that's probably
where you should have that would so this was this
was like the hub to this investigation, given the fact
(18:05):
that Lucy had disappeared with the client, so surely someone
would remember what it looked like like did anyone else
anyone else know him?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Did the club know him?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
These questions, These were questions the police hadn't been investigating,
which the first thing asked. That's what I mean, like
what were they actually doing then, because like apparently they
stepped up their case and put eighty officers on the case,
But what were they actually doing? They were doing a
single thing, because to me, that's the basic questions. That's
the first question.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that's the first place you would go to and investigate.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But I mean, like, because there's plenty of people at
the club who should have known who she was with,
because you know, there's a Mamazan that was like the
other hostess. It's like, you know something. So one hostess
called Melissa did come forward. She described a man that
she'd seen in the club with Lucy just days before
her disappearance. So the private investigator contacted Scotland Yard and
(18:57):
got there So.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I mean to Scotland Yard, not even the Japanese.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
He's obviously like, well, there's no point in the Japanese.
So they Yeah, So he contacted Scotland Yard and got
their photo image in people to build up a photo
fit from the description given by Melissa. And this is
something that the Japanese please should have done earlier, Like,
how are they going to find the.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Guy if I have no idea what he looks like.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So the private investigator he went from club to club
with the photo fit, but unfortunately no one identified him.
But it was right to focus on the nightclubs. So
several Western girls working in Raponge's hostess bars had now
had by now phoned the hotline and they had all
told disturbing stories about being taken on a dohan by
(19:45):
the same man. So Tim spoke to one club manager
and one of the hostesses from his club had went
on a dohan with this man and had come back
two days later, and she was sick and feeling really ill,
and she'd obviously been attacked in some way, and he
he had taken her to the police station, but the
police what had know how to do with it.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Do they feel like, because they're not from there, that
they're just not interested?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah? Probably, I mean, but a lot of well, I'll
get on it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
What I was just about to say, actually, because so
other women had said that they had been taken on
a dohand with this man, and he had drugged them
and raped them. And the attacker also gave the women
a false name, but their descriptions of him were all
the same, but they obviously all had different names from him.
They all said that it was a very well dressed,
wealthy man. He spoke English really well. He was quite charming.
(20:36):
But as I was just about to say beforehim, in
most cases, as young women working in Japan illegally as
host essays and not speaking Japanese, they didn't report it
to the place.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I think it because well, obviously if you're working.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Illegally, yeah, and the police don't really seem to care anyway,
so it's probably the kind of blind die of these things,
which is not on. But Lucy's family passed this information
onto the Japanese police because also that came out of
the hot line at the office that they'd set up
all this information, so it gave them the lead that
(21:10):
they needed, and by October they had identified a prime
suspector get a prime suspect, Joji o'bara, and they arrested him.
So he was forty eight and he was a wealthy
playboy who was a regular in Tokyo's nightclub for years.
He had been praying on hostesses for years. Police charged
(21:32):
him with raping five women who had worked in hostess bar.
So this is the man that these women had been
described and the phoned in the nightclub the hotline sorry.
So when they searched his property, they found a large
number of videos of himself having sex with unconscious, drugged women.
This man was a serial offender. He had been violating
(21:52):
and raping women for years and years. So Albara was
the son of a Korean and at who had made
a vast fortune and property and gambling. He was educated
at university, He learned how to speak English well. He
had a variety of cars, he had a variety of
family apartments, He had loads of money, and he was
well known on the club circuit. But he was his
(22:16):
face was known, like his name wasn't known because he
was Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like although his
face was a familiar one on the hostess club scene,
he never gave out his real real name, and he
always kept a low profile, Like he would never hand
out a business card, which is actually standard practice in Japan,
like you know, they're all businessmen card. But he never
(22:37):
handed his business card out to anybody because he didn't
want anybody to know his real name. So Joji had
a routine. He would meet hostesses in a club and
invite them on a dohan. He would pick them up
in one of his luxury cars and he would shower
them with gifts. He would then persuade them to go
back to one of his apartments and he would drug them.
When they were unconscious, he would strip them naked and
(22:58):
violate them in the most horrendous and he would film
himself doing it. The police found two hundred tapes in
his apartment, and in each one he was raping a
different women or different women. Sorry, So it wasn't even
the same people, you know, it was like different two
hundred different women. So it was a regular at the
bar where Lucy worked as a hostess. So they questioned
(23:20):
him about her, but he said that he had never
met her. But then after four weeks in custody, he
suddenly changed his story. He made a statement where he
said he had met Lucy once, but that was it
and he didn't give any more information. He just met
her once. By now, Lucy had been missing for five
months and the police needed more information, so her dad
(23:41):
Tim made an international appeal. He said, quote, it's become
more apparent it's become apparent that we are very much
in need of more information to come forward, and in
particular we would like girls who used to work in
roponge who have now gone home, because obviously a lot
of them have all gone home. So this even though
they were press conferdence and everything, it was in Japan,
(24:02):
so people who.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Were overseas, I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So if they know of this man, or whether they
have experienced a similar abduction, it's vitally important they come forward.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And the appeal worked. Among those who came forward was
a man with vital new information. So he was Australian
and it was called Robert Finnegan, and he told them
about a girl called Karita Ridgeway. He had been engaged
to her eight years earlier. She was Australian as well.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So Kara was.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
An aspiring actress. She was twenty one and in nineteen
ninety two she came to Tokyo and started working as
a hostess to pay for her studies. So Karita had
gone on her dohand with a customer, but when she
returned she was seriously ill.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
She was taken to hospital.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
She fell unconscious and then a few days later, she
died of liver failure. So the explanation at the time
had been that she had died of natural causes because
it was the liver failure. But her fiance, Robert, he'd
never been quite able to believe that, but you know,
nobody would listen to him. So the police linked to
two cases and reinvestigated Creator's case, and then found evidence
(25:12):
directly linking Joji Abara to Korea's death. When police reviewed
the videotapes found in Joji's apartment, they found one showing
unconscious on his bed. Bit by bit, they worry abulet
to piece together what had happened. So after meeting Karata
on a date, Joji had taken her back to one
of his apartments, then gave her a drink laced with sedatives. Later,
(25:33):
he filled his attack on her while using chloroform chloroform
to keep her sedate, so in high concentration, chloroform was
toxicus toxic and it was that that killed her. So
Jojie was already charged with five rapes and he was
now charged with killing Karita, but police still had no
(25:54):
evidence linking him to the disappearance of Lucy in early
February and early two thousand and one, Place in Japan
were on the verge of giving up search for Lucy,
and when they found some packages, so they were in
a seaside cave and on the on the beach, obvious
Lucie's side, but it was like near one of Jorgie's apartments.
(26:16):
They were buried but not that far under the sand,
and when they dug them up, the packages contained a
dismembered body cut into eight parts. So they later confirmed
that this was Lucy's body. Her head was encased in concrete,
so they had to chip away at the concrete to
get to her hair, you know, obviously like Danny. And
(26:37):
they already had her dental records on hand, so it
didn't take long to make a positive identification.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Her family took her body.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Home and as she was being buried, Japanese Place brought
charges against Georgie Jabara the abduction, and so the charges
were their aduction and rape, bleding to death to the
death of Lucy Blackman. So by now they're charged on
with nine other rapes and the death of caret A Ridgeway.
The conviction rate for serious crimes in Japan is something
(27:08):
like ninety nine point nine percent. So, and that's partly
because almost all criminal defendants confess, and so it's an
open and shortcase when it comes to court. But in
July two thousand and one, Joji Abarra played not guilty
to all charges. It marked marked this Sorry, It marked
(27:28):
the start of a seven year legal battle as Lucy's
family listened in court. Sorry, totally lost my I'm gonna
start at a paragraph again. In July two thousand and one,
Joji o'bara played not guilty to all charges. It marked
the start of a seven year legal battle as Lucy's
(27:49):
family listened in court. Details on her final hours unfolded.
So it was a hot Saturday in July at around
four pm, as we know, Lucy went to meet a
customer from the hostess bar. They drove out to the
coast and a witness saw them together in the seaside
resort of Zushe and they identified the man as Jorjie,
so she was definitely with him and police confirmed the
(28:13):
site and when they found a camera in Jjie's apartment
on it was a picture of Lucy taken on the
beach in Sushi. I remember this is a different apartment
to where all the videotapes were found.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This is the because he's got quite a few.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So they did a fingertip search of Jorgie's apartment in
Sushe and they found several blondairs which were quickly identified.
Lucy's mum, Jane had actually she'd got a phone call
asking her to go and take fingerprints from Lucy's room
and to also send them some of her own nail
clippings and her hair and DNA from the sample set
by Jane was matched to the blondeairs found in the apartment,
(28:50):
and of course.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
They were Lucy's.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Also, using mobile phone records, they were able to trace
the pair's movements, so it was from that apartment that
Lucy made that fine call to Louise, saying that she'ld
be home soon. And in court, Jojie finally admitted having
spent the day with Lucy. He said they'd had dinner
at his apartment, but he insisted that Lucy then left
without him. He denied having anything to do with her death.
(29:15):
He said they had had a few drinks at his apartment,
and he claimed that she was high on drugs, which
her family were like, Nah, Lucy didn't do drugs like that.
Just that's not true.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
She does it.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So he said she was hiring drugs and that he
had called a fixer to come and collect her and
take her home. Of course had to look at what
a fixer was because you know, I'm not a criminal.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So basically, a fixer is just a person who makes
arrangements for other people, basically especially of like an illicit
or devious So basically for criminals, like they just come
and like, yeah, I'll take care of that. And it's
so anyway, this fixer was named, but he couldn't attend
court because he had died. I don't know how. I
(30:00):
didn't say anything about that, but you know, conveniently or
you know, for he had died. So police were able
to prove that it was Jogie who had called Louise
and told her that Lucy had joined her religious cult.
He had later interfered with the investigation by sending police
the hoax letter in which Lucy apparently had been asked
(30:21):
to be left alone. Draft copies of the letter with
Lucy's Ford's signature was founding his apartment. I mean, come on,
get rid of the evidence.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Well don't because yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, so he maintained his innocence on all charges. They
had absolute evidence that Lucy had gone with Joji to
that location and had been at that apartment, but there
was nothing that could absolutely say that that he killed her.
So there was just no direct evidence linking Joji to
Lucy's body. There was like no DNA samples, there was
(30:55):
no sperm or blood like nothing. So this trial dragged
on and U's family repeated Repairdly returned to Japan, like
every six or twelve months. They were coming back for
you know, more kind of hearings or whatever. And when
Lucy's mum, Jane, she when she first attended, because im
assuming they must have took it in turns to sort
of to come out. Yeah, well exactly, so I think,
(31:18):
you know, they sort of took it in terms of
whose turn it was to go. And when Lucy's mum
Jane first attended the court, Doorgie wouldn't leave his cell.
The police told her that he had stripped down to
his underwear and he just wouldn't come out. So she
just saw him as a coward as they obviously just
didn't want to face her looking at the victims mother,
you know, And Jane said that she found the Japanese
(31:43):
judicial that's it, judicial system frustrating, but nothing prepared her
for the next development in the slow moving case, an
offer from Dogie's lawyers made through her second husband, so
obviously she came back home. By this point, she started
to receive phone calls and emails, but they came via Roger,
her husband. So he said he thinks that there's like
(32:06):
a presumption in Japanese culture that him, as Jane's husband,
would be able to persuade her to do what he
thought was writing like the man makes the decisions kind
of thing, you know. So one day they had been
out and they came back and there was a message
on their answer machine and it was the lawyer who said, quote,
we are expecting to talk with missus Steer to talk
about a huge amount of money two hundred thousand pounds.
(32:30):
Two hundred thousand pounds. The lawyer would like your wife
to accept this amount end quote. So they were persistent
and the amount and the amount ended up being raised
from two hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
But at no point did Jane to consider taking the money.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
She's like, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Just take money and drop the charges.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Or they were just well, will go on it. Money
offered by Joji had already been accepted by the women
he had raped, but the family of Karita Way, you
know what, the girl that he murdered, they'd rejected his offer.
So in Japanese criminal cases, it's not uncommon for someone
who's been accused of a crime to pay money to
(33:11):
a victim. It's not compensation. Very clear about that. It's
not compensation. He wasn't compensating for anything because he insisted
he hadn't done anything wrong. So it was presented as
condolence money. So it's an expression of his sympathy, but
not an expression of guilty. So's Jane said that they
(33:36):
were told repeatedly by the prosecutor, under no circumstances should
they take any money offered, and she said she had
no intention of taking any money, as she saw it
as obscene, you know, like there's no price.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Her door was like exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But Lucy's dad Tim, so this is why I was
telling you that earlier that they were divorced, just because
he was also offered the money, and he took a
different view on it. He said, quote the idea of
somebody offering what they're describing as condolence money. We would
describe over here as damages of some sort. You know,
people get fined for their crime crimes, and maybe it
(34:11):
goes to the state, or in some cases, people receive
damages for damages that have been hebertrated against them. You know,
I don't understand why it's sort of a complicated issue, really,
quote because he was seeing it as damages and Tim
accepted the money, which was a payment of one hundred
million yen or four hundred and twenty thousand pound and
(34:33):
that caused a bitter divide Way's ex wife Jane, because
you know, she'd said it was obscene, she wasn't taking
the money, and then he had taken the money personally,
not that it really matters. I can see both sides, yeah,
I mean, like I can see that you wouldn't want
to take it, as in like, you're accepting this man's
money because as you said, there isn't a price. You
can't put a price on your daughter's life. But at
(34:58):
the same time, you could take that money and well
he's I'll tell you what he said later on. But
you still need to go on. You still need money,
like some people use the money for different sort of things,
to set up charities and sort of their costs flying
to well exactly, yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
I mean there are Yeah, I mean yeah, it's probably
a difficult one, isn't it, Because I could see why
it was taken and I can see why it.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Was Yeah, you said, I don't there's no right or wrong.
I don't think probably not. That's my personal opinion. There's
no right or wrong. It's it's entirely up to that
particular individual. Person had been told that it wouldn't affect
the outcome of the trial. So you say, well, we
all know it won't help Lucy, but we do have
our life to get on with.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And I said it.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
For seven years they've been traveling backwards and forwards to Japan.
Just think of the money that they've had to spend
on their accommodation, like their flights, like haven't to take
time off work, and they will spend I have a
lot of money, So I don't blame him, No, But
(36:06):
Jane just couldn't believe that he had accepted it when
the prosecutor had said so many times to not to
do it. She said, quote, I just couldn't believe that
any parent wanting justice for their child could do that.
I just didn't understand it end quote, which is fair enough.
Get her point as well.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah, I mean that's people have to put views on
that exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So in April two thousand and seven, with the family
still divided over the condolence payment, Lucy's dad and sister
flew to Tokyo to hear the verdict. Almost seven years
had pased since Lucy had gone missing. Lucy's family had
high expectations, with most people predicting a guilty verdict against Joji,
but he was cleared on all charges relating to Lucy.
(36:52):
What the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to
prove that he had been involved in our murder, so
he was found guilty of nine rapes and the death
of create A Ridgeway, and he was sentenced to life
in prison. The public prosecutor appealed the verdicts related to
Lucy as crucial forensic evidence hadn't been heard at the
(37:15):
original trial, and on the twenty fifth of March two
thousand and eight, an appeal trial started in the Tokyo
High Court. The court found Joji Obara guilty on the
accounts of abduction, dismemberment, and disposal of Lucy's body on
the sixteenth of December two thousand and eight. So in
early December twenty ten, the Supreme Court of Japan rejected
(37:39):
Joji's appeal and upheld his life sentence. So eventually he
did get charged with abduction, dismemberment, and disposal not.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Our actual murder. Well you haven't killed it, well exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
It just doesn't sound right, does it.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
But it could be. I mean I could see the
abduction side of it.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, but and even the disposal, you can see it
because somebody else could have killed her. But the dismemberment, well, no,
somebody I suppose, yes, somebody else could have killed her.
And then he's dismembered her and then disposable.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Dismembered and disposed her of the And they couldn't prove
that he killed her.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Because somebody else could have killed her. They didn't have
the evidence that he killed her. I don't know how
they had the evidence else either, But I mean, where
have they got the other evidence?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
He was convicted.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, well he's convicted and he's you know, he appealed
and no, they upheld his life sentence. So eventually, I mean,
he got charge wallows rapes, and but there must have
been a lot more than I mean, he only got
charged with nine rapes. So he got charged with nine
rapes and created his death and then obviously the abduction,
(38:47):
dismember and disposable disposal of Luci's body. But they found
two hundred tapes, So just think how many that's two
hundred women.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
That he's raped.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Either they didn't want to come forward.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Or they didn't I don't know, I don't know about that,
but yeah, I mean, like I mean, if you think
about these women could have been all over the world
not even heard about it, because they could have just
been working in Japan. They've you know, they've been attacked
and they were like, right, okay, I'm going home now,
and they've went home to where anywhere in the world,
and they've maybe not heard about it, or there could
have been other reasons. They could have been death. I mean,
(39:20):
you know, there could have been pliny reasons. But so
I mean, although you did get charged for nine, I mean,
there's you have to remember there's been a hell of
a lot more. So thank you to everybody for listening,
and we will be back soon Bye.
Hi, I'm Laura and Angel and this is crick Divers.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, everybody, welcome to this picture on episode Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So we're in the world die away for today's paper.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Japan in Japan.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, we have been in Japan before, but this is
a bit different because this is actually the victim was
actually a British person. But the crime is in Japan.
And what is it called the missing Hostess? Let's dive
in so. Lucy Jane Blackman was born on the first
of September nineteen seventy eight and she was from Seven
(00:52):
Oaks in Kent, England. She worked for British Air Raised
as a flight attendant, but the constant fly and left
her exhausted and she decided to quit. So in early
twenty twenty one year old Lucy and her friend Louise
Phillips decided to go to Japan. Lucy has some debts
that she want to get paid off and she knew
that she can make some good money out there, so
(01:14):
they headed to Tokyo, which and they found somewhere to stay
in Rapongi, which is famous for its popular nightlife. It's
mainly like a sort of twist placed rather than a
place for Japanese people to sort of settle like a
busy like sort of all the tourists and the nightclubs
and everything like that. It's you know, it's not a
(01:35):
place where you sell over with your family. It's got
like hundreds of bars and clubs. So there's like and
there's plenty of jobs available for people from overseas. So
Lucy was soon emailing home to say that she had
found work in the Casablanca Club. Her friend Samantha had
asked what job she was doing, and Lucy had said
she was hostess, and so Samantha was kind of like,
(01:58):
that sounds really dodgy. Yeah, Lucy's like, no, no, it's fine.
Like you go and you have a drink work customer
and you just talk to them. You're just there for
company and you get paid in relation to how many
customers request you. So Lucy then told Samantha that, yeah,
you do get the odd dodgy one, but you know,
I know how to handle them, so don't worry. So basically,
(02:19):
being a hostess, it's like being a white geisha. Yeah,
so and like so we know what geishas are. It's like,
it's not it's not prostitution. Anyway, it's not prostitution. It's
basically just company, like you know, for a man requests
the company, and apparently it's a bit of an achievement
for the Japanese men to be seen with a beautiful
(02:39):
Western girl. But as I said, it is innocent. It's
just drinks. There's no sexual no, it's like drinking, you know,
chat and it's basically just sitting having a drink with
a Japanese man and listen listening to him talk. And
Lucy said it was usually pretty boring because this guy
would just be like what going on because he didn't
necessarily have anybody else that he could talk to, like
(03:01):
maybe some rich businessman, and didn't have a wife or
a girlfriend, so he's like just want some female company
and just somebody to talk to, Okay. So part of
Lucy's job was also to meet customers for dinner dates
before her shift began and and sorry, in hostess clubs,
these dates are known as dohans, So the purpose of
(03:25):
us would basically just to go for dinner somewhere and
then the hostess would bring her date back to the club.
So basically the club was making money, so they'd got
a dohan bring them back, and they would always to
spend their money in the in the club and in
the Casa Blanca club where Lucy worked, girls would be
sacked if they didn't arrange enough dohans, so it was
(03:48):
quite pressure there. Yeah, So Lucy mentioned to her friends
Amantha that they had like a scoreboard so they could
see which hostesses were doing the best and the worst,
and Lucy was actually near the bottom. So she was
worried about it because she wanted to earn more money.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
The dinner dates would be like all on like the
one night or how many dinner dates can you have and.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Lead up to going to a club? What do you mean, Well,
you said that they had to get the most like
they were.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah, they were too, Like there will be a different
one each each night. It wouldn't be like dinner once,
That's what I mean. Like I'm assuming that meant like
over a week sort of or whatever. I don't know,
just over a certain amount of the amount of time.
They would just have a scoreboard that just said who
are like how many people had had? So Lucy was
near the bottom and she was worried about it because
(04:32):
she wanted to earn more money, and she didn't want
to lose her job. So Louise is her friend that
she went with. She was also working in the same club,
and obviously she didn't want be separated from her as well.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
They wanted to be working together.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So Lucy and the other hostesses were watched over by
the mamasan. So of course I didn't know what that was.
I looked up according to Wikipedia and mama san is
usually a woman in a position of authority, especially one
in charge of a Geisha house or a bar or
a nightclub in East Asia. So the mamazon would keep
an eye on who the hostesses were meeting and who
(05:05):
they were bringing into the club, you know, just keeping
an eye on everything basically. So when Lucy's mum told
her how concerned she was, Lucy had said, it's perfectly safe.
The mamazon knew the men. They were regulars and you know,
they went when they went to dinner, they would walk
to the restaurant and back to the club, so that
it was always nearby. There was never like getting into
(05:27):
cars or anything like that. But her mum was still like,
I don't really like this, no, So on Saturday, the
first of July two thousand, which was just eight weeks
after arriving in Tokyo, Lucy got ready to see a
customer that she'd met at the club. Her friend Louise
said Lucy had agreed to meet this man for a coffee,
(05:50):
but she said she'd only be an hour. So just
before five pm, Lucy phoned Leuise say, right, I've met
my date. But it was a hot afternoon, so Lucy said, like,
we're we're going to go to the coast or like,
so she was driving her to the coast okay, so
about and so she's like, she was just letting her
know that she was going to be more than an hour.
She wasn't getting you know, because original she was just
(06:10):
going for a coffee. So so she was letting her
friend know. About about six forty five, Lucy phoned Louise
again and she said, right, okay, I'm just leaving now,
so I'll I'll be back within the hour. And she
said she had a good time and her date had
given her mobile phone. Right, So, Lucy and Louise had plans.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
To go out that night.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So Louise was like, but are you going to be
back in time? You know we're going out. We've got
plans and she's like, yeah, yeah, but honestly, I'm leaving now,
I'm on my way back. I'll be back before eight,
because it's of course seven that she'd phone, and so
I said right bye. Unfortunately, that was the last time
anyone heard from Lucy, so she wasn't actually working that
(06:54):
night then, No, she was off that night.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So I wonder why we should go for dates on
the nights that she's not working, because I thought.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Maybe that maybe that was just a bit of an
extra you know, like because well they're just out there
air money and you know, they're they're not legally working
out there, so it's not like so they can sort
of take on extra extra work and stuff or something.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, sounds like it. So over the next couple.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Of days, Louise got more and more worried about Lucy
because you obviously hadn't turned up. She never heard from her,
so early on the Monday evening, she got a phone
call from a Japanese man. He asked to speak to
Louise Phillips and she said, yeah, this is Louise, and
he replied, Lucy can't talk to you at the moment.
He went on to tell her that Lucy was okay,
but she had joined a new religious group and she
(07:43):
wouldn't be coming home. And Louise was like, I want
to speak to Lucy, like put her on the phone,
and he said no, she doesn't want to see anyone,
and he hung up.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So Louise was like, right, enough is enough?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know, I need to do something about this, So
she phoned Lucy's mum, Jane. Like Jane said, she was
literally just wrapping up a present to send to Lucy.
She'd got some shoes and some sweeties and she was
like just about to walk out the door and take
it to the post office when the phone and dry
and she answered, of course it was Louise, and like
Louise was hysterical and all she could say is Lucy missing.
(08:16):
And Jane said, her legs buckled, and she was like,
I've got to go. I'm gonna be sick. So in
the days, I know, can you imagine getting that phone call,
especially like so far away from home. Exactly exactly So,
in the days following Lucy's disappearance, our family and friends
in England grew increasingly anxious. Jane was obviously our mum,
(08:39):
was obviously constantly phoning Louise to see if there was
any news and try and get as much information as
possible about what could have happened. She also phoned the embassy,
but I didn't really kind of, I don't think they
were much help, like, shouldn't see me, get any for
any for further forward or the embassy. So Lucy's twenty
year old sister, Sophie, she decided, right, I'm I'm flying
(09:00):
over there.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I'm bringing my sister home.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
And her mum, Jane did say, quote in her wonderful innocence,
I think she thought she was going to walk down
the street and see this blonde girl and go there
we are, there's Lucy. Yeah, I mean, you know, that's
what I think she felt she was going to do.
And to be honest, I don't blame her. She probably
thought Lucy's fine, she's just lost for something, you know,
because we all think that bad things don't happen to us,
(09:24):
they happen to other people. And Lucy's ex boyfriend Jamie
offered to travel with Sophie, so they must you know,
they've split up, but they're obviously you know, it's still care.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
About her daughter to fly out there.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, maybe because she was going with Jamie as well.
She was going with a man like, so she had
somebody with her and more worried, I know, but she
were They didn't know what to do, like they had
they were like, well, now that's happening, we need to
go and find her our sister.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Or daughter, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
So within twenty four hours they arrived in Tokyo, and
they saw just how dawn in the task of finding her.
Maybe I don't think they realized how big Tokyo is,
Like Jamie said, it was just like really really foreign,
like you're in such a big place, but it's like
condensed such a small area.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Like you're on highways at like fifty.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Foot in the air going over buildings and yeah, and
he said there's a huge problem with the language barrier
as well, like you know, you can go to Europe
on holiday and get away with speaking English, but here
they just didn't understand you. So I think I don't
think they realized, you know, when Sophie was like, I'm
going to find myself, but I'm going to bring her home,
I do think that. Yeah, I think it was I
(10:36):
think it was probably a shock to them. I mean,
I mean, I don't know I've never really thought about
it before. I've never thought about how big Tokyo is
or what it looks like.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
I mean, I've seen obviously things on your TV about
how busy it always looks, and there does look amazing,
but never been there personally, So I don't know.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yeah, I just I don't think they realized how don't
and it was going to be so obviously that was
for straight. But what Jamie said was more frustrating was
the attitude of the Japanese police.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
So I did get the police had been.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Formed, like he said, they just they just didn't seem
to be bothered, and like him and Sophie just felt
like they were just getting nowhere. After a week, they
had found no clues as to where Lucy could be.
They were going to the polaystation every day, and they
were basically just told to go away. Because Lucy was
twenty one, she was allowed to go off by herself
(11:25):
as she wanted to.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
But again, this is when I always go back to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
If if it's something out of character that you've done
and your friends and family are saying you're missing, you
probably are missing.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Like you know, they know that this is not what
you like, especially British women in Japan.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Come on, you mean you've not just gone off and
not contact people. I mean, I think most people know
in this day and age that you keep in contact
with your friends and family because they would be worried
of course if you're not going in contact. And some
some random Japanese man his phone your friend up and said, no,
she just doesn't want to talk to you, and.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
She just joined her religious count say red flags, I mean,
what does Well, obviously not to the place.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
So the only thing that they managed to achieve was
to get Lucy listed as a missing person on a postcard,
which basically just went in a big file of missing persons.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But luckily a British reporter did.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There was a small article about Lucy in the newspaper.
So this British reporter saw the article in the Japanese newspaper.
It was a really small story that just said a
British tourist, unnamed, twenty one year old woman had gone
missing and her family were anxious about her whereabouts and
we're looking for her.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So luckily, because.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It was a British reporter who worked over there, and
he looked she was like right, okay, like I'm going
to look into this, and he said it became clear
that there was a lot more, a lot more to it,
and once the press got a hold of it, the
story quickly escalated into one of the biggest that summer.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So he got it going.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
So Lucy's dad, Tim, was mum and dad. Her mum
and dad were divorced, her mum and Matt and somebody
else him, but Lucy's dad Tim, just because it kind
of comes into play later on, he flew out to
Tokyo to drum up the press attention further and within
two weeks we've been missing.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
She was headline news.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Tim and Sophie would like sit up every night thinking
of ways to get Lucy on primetime television, like in
the morning, and they had a press conference at five am,
and all this press would turn up and her picture
ended up on the front page of the newspapers. But
it's just sad that it took like a British reporter
and our family to go and get this done.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Like it wasn't the police that got that.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
If they hadn't have done that, nothing would have happened. Yeah,
So there was there was lots of speculation that Lucy
had been kidnapped by a cult and her family did
actually think that she was being held somewhere against her will,
but they just weren't that would be the police that
we're going to be the people that would suddenly find
her an a warehouse somewhere in Tokyo and bring her
(14:05):
back to them. They felt it would be more likely
be a tip off from a member of the public
that would find her. So that's why they were so
determined to keep her in the public eye. So the
family's press campaign one support from Tokyo's close knit community
of British expats. So a businessman called Hugh shake Shaft
happened to see Tim and Sopha in a restaurant, so
(14:27):
he approached him and said, look, while you're here, you're
going to need like logistical help.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You're getting need.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Office, like an office, telephone lines, facts, internet. You need
to get this set up as an office to stand
any chance of succeeding. So he offered them an office
in his building. So, because he was a busin spanning
office at his same company, gave them an office, gave
him a dedicated phone line like a hot line thing
for information for the public. That's what I mean that's
not the police that's doing all that.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
I mean, that's just total you know, by chance, he's
just been in a restaurant he recognized them. Yeah, and
you know, actually genuinely being a nice person, because I
mean that could have been scolary.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
But no, it's all set up for them. Just genuinely
wanted to help. So lots of calls came into the hotline,
but none of them were in use, and for a
long time Tim and Sophie had no idea what happened
to Lucy. So they held another press conference and press
confidence and recruited as many high profile people as possible.
Tim persuaded the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair to
(15:23):
mention the case when he was on he was on
an official visit to Japan, so he mentioned the case.
So they've got him to mention the case to the
Japanese Prime Minister yoshirol More. Richard Branson, the founder of
the Virgin Group. He put out a TV appeal and
they also approached the British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who
(15:43):
was visiting Tokyo at the time, you know, to get
Lucy's case out there so as you can imagine all
this put pressure on the Japanese authorities. So the Japanese
Prime Minister came down hard on the place and told
them they needed to find Lucy and solve this case.
That's what it took.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I know, that's just so awful.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
I mean's a very large place.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
But I mean, yeah, seriously.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You can't just be like, especially when the family is
over here drumming up so much press, interest and ever,
you can Lucy are still sitting back.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Going post, putting a file and then forget about her.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Well they did until until the Prime minister, I mean
the Prime minister actually had to come down on them.
So that's when the police decided they needed to step up,
and they agreed to pour more resources into the case,
and they assigned eighty officers to the hunt for Lucy.
So they had the resources if they can spare eighty officers.
(16:47):
But if the family were hoping they would get more
information from detectives, they were wrong. The police just wouldn't
tell tim what they were doing because they didn't want
to give away details of their investigation. Lucy's mum, Jane,
was concerned at the jack police weren't following up on
vital information and the precious time was being lost she was.
She was suggesting things like the fact that Lucy had
(17:07):
a mobile phone, can you trace it? Where they're any
security cameras around? Like have we checked them if they have, like.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
The places she was last seen, and like, you know,
got an actual official recognition of this.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Guy that she's with.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Well, the police told her that they couldn't answer her questions.
So then in August, as the search entered its second month,
the police received a letter written in English and signed
from Lucy. Her family knew that wasn't Lucy's signature, but
it did give them hope that she was still alive
and that she was being held against her will. But
(17:44):
even with this letter, the police were still no closer
to finding Lucy or an abductor. Jane hired a British
private detective and he started, so he obviously went over there.
He started at the club because you know, that's probably
where you should have that would so this was this
was like the hub to this investigation, given the fact
(18:05):
that Lucy had disappeared with the client, so surely someone
would remember what it looked like like did anyone else
anyone else know him?
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Did the club know him?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
These questions, These were questions the police hadn't been investigating,
which the first thing asked. That's what I mean, like
what were they actually doing then, because like apparently they
stepped up their case and put eighty officers on the case,
But what were they actually doing? They were doing a
single thing, because to me, that's the basic questions. That's
the first question.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, that's the first place you would go to and investigate.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
But I mean, like, because there's plenty of people at
the club who should have known who she was with,
because you know, there's a Mamazan that was like the
other hostess. It's like, you know something. So one hostess
called Melissa did come forward. She described a man that
she'd seen in the club with Lucy just days before
her disappearance. So the private investigator contacted Scotland Yard and
(18:57):
got there So.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
I mean to Scotland Yard, not even the Japanese.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
He's obviously like, well, there's no point in the Japanese.
So they Yeah, So he contacted Scotland Yard and got
their photo image in people to build up a photo
fit from the description given by Melissa. And this is
something that the Japanese please should have done earlier, Like,
how are they going to find the.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Guy if I have no idea what he looks like.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
So the private investigator he went from club to club
with the photo fit, but unfortunately no one identified him.
But it was right to focus on the nightclubs. So
several Western girls working in Raponge's hostess bars had now
had by now phoned the hotline and they had all
told disturbing stories about being taken on a dohan by
(19:45):
the same man. So Tim spoke to one club manager
and one of the hostesses from his club had went
on a dohan with this man and had come back
two days later, and she was sick and feeling really ill,
and she'd obviously been attacked in some way, and he
he had taken her to the police station, but the
police what had know how to do with it.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Do they feel like, because they're not from there, that
they're just not interested?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah? Probably, I mean, but a lot of well, I'll
get on it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
What I was just about to say, actually, because so
other women had said that they had been taken on
a dohand with this man, and he had drugged them
and raped them. And the attacker also gave the women
a false name, but their descriptions of him were all
the same, but they obviously all had different names from him.
They all said that it was a very well dressed,
wealthy man. He spoke English really well. He was quite charming.
(20:36):
But as I was just about to say beforehim, in
most cases, as young women working in Japan illegally as
host essays and not speaking Japanese, they didn't report it
to the place.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I think it because well, obviously if you're working.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Illegally, yeah, and the police don't really seem to care anyway,
so it's probably the kind of blind die of these things,
which is not on. But Lucy's family passed this information
onto the Japanese police because also that came out of
the hot line at the office that they'd set up
all this information, so it gave them the lead that
(21:10):
they needed, and by October they had identified a prime
suspector get a prime suspect, Joji o'bara, and they arrested him.
So he was forty eight and he was a wealthy
playboy who was a regular in Tokyo's nightclub for years.
He had been praying on hostesses for years. Police charged
(21:32):
him with raping five women who had worked in hostess bar.
So this is the man that these women had been
described and the phoned in the nightclub the hotline sorry.
So when they searched his property, they found a large
number of videos of himself having sex with unconscious, drugged women.
This man was a serial offender. He had been violating
(21:52):
and raping women for years and years. So Albara was
the son of a Korean and at who had made
a vast fortune and property and gambling. He was educated
at university, He learned how to speak English well. He
had a variety of cars, he had a variety of
family apartments, He had loads of money, and he was
well known on the club circuit. But he was his
(22:16):
face was known, like his name wasn't known because he
was Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like although his
face was a familiar one on the hostess club scene,
he never gave out his real real name, and he
always kept a low profile, Like he would never hand
out a business card, which is actually standard practice in Japan,
like you know, they're all businessmen card. But he never
(22:37):
handed his business card out to anybody because he didn't
want anybody to know his real name. So Joji had
a routine. He would meet hostesses in a club and
invite them on a dohan. He would pick them up
in one of his luxury cars and he would shower
them with gifts. He would then persuade them to go
back to one of his apartments and he would drug them.
When they were unconscious, he would strip them naked and
(22:58):
violate them in the most horrendous and he would film
himself doing it. The police found two hundred tapes in
his apartment, and in each one he was raping a
different women or different women. Sorry, So it wasn't even
the same people, you know, it was like different two
hundred different women. So it was a regular at the
bar where Lucy worked as a hostess. So they questioned
(23:20):
him about her, but he said that he had never
met her. But then after four weeks in custody, he
suddenly changed his story. He made a statement where he
said he had met Lucy once, but that was it
and he didn't give any more information. He just met
her once. By now, Lucy had been missing for five
months and the police needed more information, so her dad
(23:41):
Tim made an international appeal. He said, quote, it's become
more apparent it's become apparent that we are very much
in need of more information to come forward, and in
particular we would like girls who used to work in
roponge who have now gone home, because obviously a lot
of them have all gone home. So this even though
they were press conferdence and everything, it was in Japan,
(24:02):
so people who.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
Were overseas, I've seen it.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So if they know of this man, or whether they
have experienced a similar abduction, it's vitally important they come forward.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
End quote.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And the appeal worked. Among those who came forward was
a man with vital new information. So he was Australian
and it was called Robert Finnegan, and he told them
about a girl called Karita Ridgeway. He had been engaged
to her eight years earlier. She was Australian as well.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So Kara was.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
An aspiring actress. She was twenty one and in nineteen
ninety two she came to Tokyo and started working as
a hostess to pay for her studies. So Karita had
gone on her dohand with a customer, but when she
returned she was seriously ill.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
She was taken to hospital.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
She fell unconscious and then a few days later, she
died of liver failure. So the explanation at the time
had been that she had died of natural causes because
it was the liver failure. But her fiance, Robert, he'd
never been quite able to believe that, but you know,
nobody would listen to him. So the police linked to
two cases and reinvestigated Creator's case, and then found evidence
(25:12):
directly linking Joji Abara to Korea's death. When police reviewed
the videotapes found in Joji's apartment, they found one showing
unconscious on his bed. Bit by bit, they worry abulet
to piece together what had happened. So after meeting Karata
on a date, Joji had taken her back to one
of his apartments, then gave her a drink laced with sedatives. Later,
(25:33):
he filled his attack on her while using chloroform chloroform
to keep her sedate, so in high concentration, chloroform was
toxicus toxic and it was that that killed her. So
Jojie was already charged with five rapes and he was
now charged with killing Karita, but police still had no
(25:54):
evidence linking him to the disappearance of Lucy in early
February and early two thousand and one, Place in Japan
were on the verge of giving up search for Lucy,
and when they found some packages, so they were in
a seaside cave and on the on the beach, obvious
Lucie's side, but it was like near one of Jorgie's apartments.
(26:16):
They were buried but not that far under the sand,
and when they dug them up, the packages contained a
dismembered body cut into eight parts. So they later confirmed
that this was Lucy's body. Her head was encased in concrete,
so they had to chip away at the concrete to
get to her hair, you know, obviously like Danny. And
(26:37):
they already had her dental records on hand, so it
didn't take long to make a positive identification.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
Her family took her body.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Home and as she was being buried, Japanese Place brought
charges against Georgie Jabara the abduction, and so the charges
were their aduction and rape, bleding to death to the
death of Lucy Blackman. So by now they're charged on
with nine other rapes and the death of caret A Ridgeway.
The conviction rate for serious crimes in Japan is something
(27:08):
like ninety nine point nine percent. So, and that's partly
because almost all criminal defendants confess, and so it's an
open and shortcase when it comes to court. But in
July two thousand and one, Joji Abarra played not guilty
to all charges. It marked marked this Sorry, It marked
(27:28):
the start of a seven year legal battle as Lucy's
family listened in court. Sorry, totally lost my I'm gonna
start at a paragraph again. In July two thousand and one,
Joji o'bara played not guilty to all charges. It marked
the start of a seven year legal battle as Lucy's
(27:49):
family listened in court. Details on her final hours unfolded.
So it was a hot Saturday in July at around
four pm, as we know, Lucy went to meet a
customer from the hostess bar. They drove out to the
coast and a witness saw them together in the seaside
resort of Zushe and they identified the man as Jorjie,
so she was definitely with him and police confirmed the
(28:13):
site and when they found a camera in Jjie's apartment
on it was a picture of Lucy taken on the
beach in Sushi. I remember this is a different apartment
to where all the videotapes were found.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
This is the because he's got quite a few.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So they did a fingertip search of Jorgie's apartment in
Sushe and they found several blondairs which were quickly identified.
Lucy's mum, Jane had actually she'd got a phone call
asking her to go and take fingerprints from Lucy's room
and to also send them some of her own nail
clippings and her hair and DNA from the sample set
by Jane was matched to the blondeairs found in the apartment,
(28:50):
and of course.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
They were Lucy's.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Also, using mobile phone records, they were able to trace
the pair's movements, so it was from that apartment that
Lucy made that fine call to Louise, saying that she'ld
be home soon. And in court, Jojie finally admitted having
spent the day with Lucy. He said they'd had dinner
at his apartment, but he insisted that Lucy then left
without him. He denied having anything to do with her death.
(29:15):
He said they had had a few drinks at his apartment,
and he claimed that she was high on drugs, which
her family were like, Nah, Lucy didn't do drugs like that.
Just that's not true.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
She does it.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So he said she was hiring drugs and that he
had called a fixer to come and collect her and
take her home. Of course had to look at what
a fixer was because you know, I'm not a criminal.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
So basically, a fixer is just a person who makes
arrangements for other people, basically especially of like an illicit
or devious So basically for criminals, like they just come
and like, yeah, I'll take care of that. And it's
so anyway, this fixer was named, but he couldn't attend
court because he had died. I don't know how. I
(30:00):
didn't say anything about that, but you know, conveniently or
you know, for he had died. So police were able
to prove that it was Jogie who had called Louise
and told her that Lucy had joined her religious cult.
He had later interfered with the investigation by sending police
the hoax letter in which Lucy apparently had been asked
(30:21):
to be left alone. Draft copies of the letter with
Lucy's Ford's signature was founding his apartment. I mean, come on,
get rid of the evidence.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Well don't because yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Yeah, so he maintained his innocence on all charges. They
had absolute evidence that Lucy had gone with Joji to
that location and had been at that apartment, but there
was nothing that could absolutely say that that he killed her.
So there was just no direct evidence linking Joji to
Lucy's body. There was like no DNA samples, there was
(30:55):
no sperm or blood like nothing. So this trial dragged
on and U's family repeated Repairdly returned to Japan, like
every six or twelve months. They were coming back for
you know, more kind of hearings or whatever. And when
Lucy's mum, Jane, she when she first attended, because im
assuming they must have took it in turns to sort
of to come out. Yeah, well exactly, so I think,
(31:18):
you know, they sort of took it in terms of
whose turn it was to go. And when Lucy's mum
Jane first attended the court, Doorgie wouldn't leave his cell.
The police told her that he had stripped down to
his underwear and he just wouldn't come out. So she
just saw him as a coward as they obviously just
didn't want to face her looking at the victims mother,
you know, And Jane said that she found the Japanese
(31:43):
judicial that's it, judicial system frustrating, but nothing prepared her
for the next development in the slow moving case, an
offer from Dogie's lawyers made through her second husband, so
obviously she came back home. By this point, she started
to receive phone calls and emails, but they came via Roger,
her husband. So he said he thinks that there's like
(32:06):
a presumption in Japanese culture that him, as Jane's husband,
would be able to persuade her to do what he
thought was writing like the man makes the decisions kind
of thing, you know. So one day they had been
out and they came back and there was a message
on their answer machine and it was the lawyer who said, quote,
we are expecting to talk with missus Steer to talk
about a huge amount of money two hundred thousand pounds.
(32:30):
Two hundred thousand pounds. The lawyer would like your wife
to accept this amount end quote. So they were persistent
and the amount and the amount ended up being raised
from two hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
But at no point did Jane to consider taking the money.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
She's like, no, it's.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Just take money and drop the charges.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Or they were just well, will go on it. Money
offered by Joji had already been accepted by the women
he had raped, but the family of Karita Way, you
know what, the girl that he murdered, they'd rejected his offer.
So in Japanese criminal cases, it's not uncommon for someone
who's been accused of a crime to pay money to
(33:11):
a victim. It's not compensation. Very clear about that. It's
not compensation. He wasn't compensating for anything because he insisted
he hadn't done anything wrong. So it was presented as
condolence money. So it's an expression of his sympathy, but
not an expression of guilty. So's Jane said that they
(33:36):
were told repeatedly by the prosecutor, under no circumstances should
they take any money offered, and she said she had
no intention of taking any money, as she saw it
as obscene, you know, like there's no price.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
Her door was like exactly.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
But Lucy's dad Tim, so this is why I was
telling you that earlier that they were divorced, just because
he was also offered the money, and he took a
different view on it. He said, quote the idea of
somebody offering what they're describing as condolence money. We would
describe over here as damages of some sort. You know,
people get fined for their crime crimes, and maybe it
(34:11):
goes to the state, or in some cases, people receive
damages for damages that have been hebertrated against them. You know,
I don't understand why it's sort of a complicated issue, really,
quote because he was seeing it as damages and Tim
accepted the money, which was a payment of one hundred
million yen or four hundred and twenty thousand pound and
(34:33):
that caused a bitter divide Way's ex wife Jane, because
you know, she'd said it was obscene, she wasn't taking
the money, and then he had taken the money personally,
not that it really matters. I can see both sides, yeah,
I mean, like I can see that you wouldn't want
to take it, as in like, you're accepting this man's
money because as you said, there isn't a price. You
can't put a price on your daughter's life. But at
(34:58):
the same time, you could take that money and well
he's I'll tell you what he said later on. But
you still need to go on. You still need money,
like some people use the money for different sort of things,
to set up charities and sort of their costs flying
to well exactly, yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
I mean there are Yeah, I mean yeah, it's probably
a difficult one, isn't it, Because I could see why
it was taken and I can see why it.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Was Yeah, you said, I don't there's no right or wrong.
I don't think probably not. That's my personal opinion. There's
no right or wrong. It's it's entirely up to that
particular individual. Person had been told that it wouldn't affect
the outcome of the trial. So you say, well, we
all know it won't help Lucy, but we do have
our life to get on with.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
And I said it.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
For seven years they've been traveling backwards and forwards to Japan.
Just think of the money that they've had to spend
on their accommodation, like their flights, like haven't to take
time off work, and they will spend I have a
lot of money, So I don't blame him, No, But
(36:06):
Jane just couldn't believe that he had accepted it when
the prosecutor had said so many times to not to
do it. She said, quote, I just couldn't believe that
any parent wanting justice for their child could do that.
I just didn't understand it end quote, which is fair enough.
Get her point as well.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Yeah, I mean that's people have to put views on
that exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
So in April two thousand and seven, with the family
still divided over the condolence payment, Lucy's dad and sister
flew to Tokyo to hear the verdict. Almost seven years
had pased since Lucy had gone missing. Lucy's family had
high expectations, with most people predicting a guilty verdict against Joji,
but he was cleared on all charges relating to Lucy.
(36:52):
What the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to
prove that he had been involved in our murder, so
he was found guilty of nine rapes and the death
of create A Ridgeway, and he was sentenced to life
in prison. The public prosecutor appealed the verdicts related to
Lucy as crucial forensic evidence hadn't been heard at the
(37:15):
original trial, and on the twenty fifth of March two
thousand and eight, an appeal trial started in the Tokyo
High Court. The court found Joji Obara guilty on the
accounts of abduction, dismemberment, and disposal of Lucy's body on
the sixteenth of December two thousand and eight. So in
early December twenty ten, the Supreme Court of Japan rejected
(37:39):
Joji's appeal and upheld his life sentence. So eventually he
did get charged with abduction, dismemberment, and disposal not.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Our actual murder. Well you haven't killed it, well exactly.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
It just doesn't sound right, does it.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
But it could be. I mean I could see the
abduction side of it.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Yeah, but and even the disposal, you can see it
because somebody else could have killed her. But the dismemberment, well, no,
somebody I suppose, yes, somebody else could have killed her.
And then he's dismembered her and then disposable.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
Dismembered and disposed her of the And they couldn't prove
that he killed her.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Because somebody else could have killed her. They didn't have
the evidence that he killed her. I don't know how
they had the evidence else either, But I mean, where
have they got the other evidence?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
He was convicted.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Yeah, well he's convicted and he's you know, he appealed
and no, they upheld his life sentence. So eventually, I mean,
he got charge wallows rapes, and but there must have
been a lot more than I mean, he only got
charged with nine rapes. So he got charged with nine
rapes and created his death and then obviously the abduction,
(38:47):
dismember and disposable disposal of Luci's body. But they found
two hundred tapes, So just think how many that's two
hundred women.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
That he's raped.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Either they didn't want to come forward.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
Or they didn't I don't know, I don't know about that,
but yeah, I mean, like I mean, if you think
about these women could have been all over the world
not even heard about it, because they could have just
been working in Japan. They've you know, they've been attacked
and they were like, right, okay, I'm going home now,
and they've went home to where anywhere in the world,
and they've maybe not heard about it, or there could
have been other reasons. They could have been death. I mean,
(39:20):
you know, there could have been pliny reasons. But so
I mean, although you did get charged for nine, I mean,
there's you have to remember there's been a hell of
a lot more. So thank you to everybody for listening,
and we will be back soon Bye.
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