I can’t visit Nicola’s grave, says her father

The father of slain Irishwoman Nicola Furlong spoke of his anguish at her death, saying he is unable to visit her grave or disturb her bedroom.

“I have gone into her bedroom to hoover but nothing has been touched. Even her Easter eggs are still there,” Andrew Furlong said yesterday after being told that a March 4 murder trial date has been set for Richard Hinds, a 19-year-old musician from the US. He confessed to strangling the DCU student but said he didn’t mean to kill her.

Nicola, a 21-year-old student at DCU, who was studying in Japan, was found dead in a five-star hotel in Tokyo on May 24.