Tokyo police are under attack over their failure to solve another killing of a young British women - Lindsay Ann Hawker, whose bruised and strangled body was found last month in a sand-filled bath on the balcony of an apartment block.

The chief suspect, Tetsuya Ichihashi, in whose apartment she was found, escaped from nine policemen in his stockinged feet and despite a huge manhunt, there has been no sign of him since.

According to police, Ichihashi approached Ms Hawker in the street on March 21 and tried to strike up a conversation. He ran after her as she cycled to her flat nearby. Because her two English flatmates were at home, she agreed to let him in.

"He drew a picture of her in felt-tip pen and gave it to her at the same time as he gave her his home address and phone number," said deputy superintendent Takeo Terajima. He said the suspect appeared to have been "obsessed" with the young Englishwoman.

Ichihashi apparently gained her confidence by discussing biology, which she had studied at Leeds University until last year. He convinced her to give him an English lesson on the following Saturday and wrote his name and address on a slip of paper.

That piece of paper led police to his home after her friends were unable to contact her by mobile phone and she failed to turn up for work. Officers found Hawker's body after Ichihashi escaped on foot.

Ms Hawker was a 22-year-old English teacher from Brandon near Coventry. She is due to be buried on Thursday in Coventry Cathedral.

There has been criticism of the police for allowing Ichihashi to escape. Tim Blackman, the father of Lucie Blackman, said that it echoed mistakes made in the investigation of the killing of his daughter.

"I just know how devastated these people are and what a terrible problem it is going to be for them. It’s just a great shame that the guy got out the back door," he said.

Mr Blackman spent months travelling to and from Japan trying to persuade Tokyo police to take his daughter's disappearance seriously. It was seven months before her dismembered body was found in a seaside cave, her head encased in a block of concrete nearby.

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