The Japanese killer and serial rapist Joji Obara was sentenced yesterday to life in jail after being convicted of abducting and dismembering the body of the British bar hostess Lucie Blackman.

The dramatic verdict brought tears of relief to Ms Blackman's mother after an eight-year ordeal. Jane Steare wept quietly in the court room as an appeal judge partially overturned last year's acquittal of Obara, 55, a property owner who was accused of killing the 21-year-old woman from Sevenoaks, Kent, with drugs that he had administered in order to rape her.

The court found that there was insufficient evidence to prove that Obara caused the death of Ms Blackman by using chloroform to keep her unconscious.

He faces the probability of decades in jail after the judge gave him a life sentence for the abduction, dismemberment and disposal of her body, and confirmed eight other convictions for rape and one of rape and killing.

“To violate the dignity of so many victims, using drugs, in order to satisfy his lust, is unprecedented and extremely evil, and there are no extenuating circumstances for acts based on determined and twisted motives,” the head of the three-judge panel, Hiroshi Kadono, said in a 33-page summary of the judgment.

One of Obara's lawyers, Yasuo Shionoya, told The Times after the verdict that he believed his client would appeal to the Japanese Supreme Court, but that the chances of success were poor.

Obara avoided looking towards the public gallery where Mrs Steare sat with her eyes fixed upon him. His head bowed slightly as the judge read out the damning judgment on a man much of whose adult life, according to the prosecution, was spent preying on women, Japanese as well as foreign.

“This has been a harrowing ordeal, not just for today, but for over eight years,” Mrs Steare said after the verdict. “But at last we have two guilty verdicts and a life sentence ... Today, truth and honour have prevailed, not only for Lucie, but for all victims of violent sexual crime.”

Tim Blackman, Lucie's father, who is in the mid-Atlantic taking part in a yacht race, expressed amazement on being told the news by The Times. “It is fantastic, and completely unexpected, and no less than Lucie deserves,” he said by satellite telephone. “It sounds churlish to say it's a pity that this didn't happen years ago, because it's been such a long haul, such a merciless torture. But for the police and prosecutors to get him like this is a great achievement.”

Two years ago his former wife, Mrs Steare, denounced Mr Blackman as a Judas after he accepted 100,000 million yen (£450,000 at the time) from an associate of Obara. He has always denied any criminal responsibility for her death.

Yesterday the judge said that the compensation had had no effect on his decision to impose a life sentence, the toughest possible for such charges.

Lucie Blackman was a bar hostess in the Roppongi area of Tokyo when she disappeared in July 2000. In February 2001 her body was found buried in a seaside cave a few hundred yards from a flat owned by Obara, cut into eight pieces.

Her head had been embedded in concrete, traces of which were found in the flat.

After Obara's arrest police found scores of videos in his various properties, showing him having sex with drugged and insensible women, including Carita Ridgway, an Australian bar hostess who died in Tokyo in mysterious circumstances in 1992.

There was no video of Ms Blackman and, despite circumstantial evidence, there was no direct proof — no irrefutable smoking gun, such as a witness or a DNA sample — to demonstrate absolutely that he killed her.

“Lucie's cause of death was not identified,” said Chief Justice Kadono. “The use of chloroform in raping the victim cannot be determined.”

Soon after Ms Blackman's disappearance, Obara visited a series of shops and bought camping equipment, quick-drying concrete, mixing equipment, cutters, scissors, hammers and a chainsaw. They police found that he had conducted internet searches on his computer about how to dispose of a dead body.

He has admitted spending the evening with Miss Blackman before her disappearance. A witness called by him suggested that she had died after taking illegal drugs — a possibility that has always been denied by her family and friends.

Obara fought a stubborn battle aided by a large team of defence lawyers, who were funded by the fortune that his family inherited from his father.

He commissioned website designers and publishers who created a home page and put out a long book arguing for his innocence.

Agents for Obara repeatedly contacted members of the family urging them to accept money from him.

The eight surviving rape victims — four Japanese and four foreign — all accepted payouts from him. Despite their initial reluctance, so did the family of Ms Ridgway. Only Mrs Steare refused all offers of money.

Trail that led to conviction

May 2000 Lucie Blackman and a friend arrive in Tokyo on 90-day tourist visas. Both get jobs at the Casablanca bar in the Roppongi bar district of Tokyo

July 2000 After phoning her friend to say that she is going on a drive with a man, Ms Blackman disappears

July 13, 2000 Tim Blackman holds a press conference in Tokyo to request information on his daughter's whereabouts

July 21, 2000 Tony Blair, then the Prime Minister, meets the Blackmans in Tokyo and promises to bring up the disappearance with his Japanese counterpart

October 2000 Detectives question Joji Obara. A month later he admits to having met Ms Blackman but swears that he caused her no harm

February 2001 Ms Blackman's mutilated body is found near the seaside, close to Obara's house

April 2001 Obara is arrested and later charged in relation to Ms Blackman's death and disappearance October 2003 Obara goes on trial charged with the abduction of Ms Blackman, rape resulting in death and the disposal of her body

March 2003 Ms Blackman's ashes are buried in Sevenoaks

24 April 2007 The court rules that there is not enough evidence to link Obara with Ms Blackman's death or disappearance. He is, however, given a life sentence for multiple attacks on other women

April 25 2007 Prosecutors announce that they are to appeal against Obara's acquittal over the disappearance and death of Ms Blackman

December 16 2008 Judge Hiroshi Kadono overrules previous verdict

Source: Times archives

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