The English language teacher found buried in a bathtub filled with sand had been stalked by her suspected killer in the days before she was killed, The Times has learnt.

Lindsay Hawker and her women expatriate colleagues at a language school in Tokyo had grown concerned at the attentions of Tatsuya Ichihashi.

Her friends were dismayed when she agreed to give him a private English conversation lesson at his flat because she wanted to raise money to return to England.

A postmortem examination showed yesterday that Miss Hawker, 22, who was from Brandon, near Coventry, had been strangled before her naked body was put in a bath on the balcony of Mr Ichihashi’s flat. Mr Ichihashi, 28, fled on Monday night as detectives questioned him there.

Police visited him after finding his name and telephone number on a piece of paper in Miss Hawker’s flat after her friends had raised concern about her welfare. Part of her hand was seen sticking out of the sand in the bathtub.

A fellow conversation teacher at the Nova chain of English schools in the suburbs east of Tokyo told The Times: “She was stalked, that’s the truth. She was completely blameless. Her only crime was that she was trying to help, and she was overconfident and a little bit naive in a country where she fitted the stereotype of a tall, beautiful Western girl.”

Detectives said that Mr Ichihashi had approached Miss Hawker, a Leeds University biology graduate, on Tuesday last week at a train station near his flat and said: “Do you remember me?”

An American friend told The Times: “He got on the last train and talked to her on her journey home. She got on her bike and he ran behind her. This guy was a runner, he was like a college athlete.”

Later that day Miss Hawker posted a message to her English boyfriend, Ryan Garside, on the Facebook social-networking website: “Love u lots — dont worry abt the guy who chased me home, its jus crazy Japan miss u xxx.”

Mr Ichihashi, a student of horticulture at Chiba University, called at her flat in the town of Funabashi at the end of last week. It was then that she agreed to give him a private English lesson at his own flat between 9am and 10am on Sunday. “Lindsay studied botany, and that was his bit of luck,” the American friend said. “They had a shared interest, he got her talking and she trusted him.”

Mr Ichihashi, whose father is a brain surgeon and whose mother is a dentist, lived alone in the four-room flat.

He was described as having plucked eyebrows in the style of the co-called chimpira, or ‘little pricks’, young men who affect the style of older yakuza gangsters and indulge in petty crime, and sometimes drug dealing. Police revealed yesterday that Mr Ichihashi had a criminal record for stealing a wallet containing 10,000 yen (44 pounds) in May 2004.

Miss Hawker’s family said yesterday that they hoped that her death would make young people more aware of the dangers they faced abroad.

Her father, Bill Hawker, who was in Tokyo to identify her body, spoke of his family’s pride in her work in Japan. “I believe my daughter was tricked into going to this man’s apartment,” he said.

“This was a loner, a social outcast, who targeted my daughter and must be caught. I don’t want any other family to go through what my family is going through.”

Mr Hawker said: “Before coming to Japan she researched extensively on the net, and we all agreed that Japan was a safe place and a good society.”

Mr Garside, 21, who also flew to Japan, said: “I loved her so, so much. We planned one day to get married and start a family. That man has ruined mine and Lindsay’s plan. He has ruined our dreams.”

Speaking outside the family’s home, her sisters, Louise Hawker, 20, holding the hand of Lisa, 25, said: “If Lindsay’s death can make at least one young person more vigilant then perhaps another family can be spared the pain, devastation and despair that we are all experiencing.”

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