Court acquits businessman of woman’s death

THE father of murdered British woman Lucie Blackman said his daughter had been robbed of justice yesterday after a court cleared a Japanese businessman of involvement in her death.

Property developer Joji Obara, 54, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of a series of rapes and the death of an Australian woman.

But the Tokyo District Court acquitted him of all charges relating to Ms Blackman, 21, from Kent, who disappeared in July 2000 while working as a bar hostess in Tokyo.