Police in Japan have released a video of the man they are searching for in connection with the murder of a young British teacher, who was found naked in a sand-filled bathtub earlier this year.

Officers have been looking for Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, since Lindsay Ann Hawker's body was found at his flat in the city of Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, on March 26.

In a bid to track down their prime suspect, a recording taken of him by a security camera in the lift of his apartment building was released to the media.

Japanese broadcasters have showed the recording widely since it was unveiled yesterday. Police say it was made in the days leading up to the discovery of 22-year-old Miss Hawker's body.

After its release, a police official told the Reuters news agency: “We hope to get more information from the public."

Mr Ichihashi fled the apartment when police arrived to question him about Miss Hawker, who had been reported missing. In the subsequent chase with officers, he lost his shoes and a rucksack. Police then discovered her body in a bathtub filled with sand on his balcony.

Police said she was naked with severe injuries to her face and arms, and her possessions had been strewn around his flat.

Miss Hawker, of Brandon near Coventry, had been working as an English teacher in Japan at the time of her death.

Her father Bill, who flew to Japan to identify her body shortly after she was found, told a press conference at the time that his daughter “was not in any sort of relationship with the suspect”.

"I believe my daughter was tricked into going to this man's apartment under the pretext of giving English lessons," he said.

"She would have helped anybody. And it was because she would help anybody, she is where she is now."

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