Fresh appeal into Blackman verdict

JAPANESE prosecutors sought again yesterday to prove that a man killed a British bar hostess whose dismembered body was found in a cave near Tokyo, in a second appeal hearing in the high-profile case.

Joji Obara, a wealthy former property developer in his mid-50s, was sentenced by the Tokyo District Court to life in prison in April 2007 for raping nine women including one who died, Australian Carita Ridgway.

The lower court said there was insufficient evidence to prove he killed Briton Lucie Blackman — like Ridgway a 21-year-old bar hostess.

Obara wants an acquittal over the deaths of Blackman and Ridgway. Prosecutors are seeking his conviction, alleging that he used chloroform, which could have led to her death.

Blackman vanished in July 2000 while working in Tokyo’s seedy Roppongi district. Her dismembered body was found seven months later in a seaside cave. The case triggered a storm of media coverage in Britain. The next hearing is scheduled for July 17.