Book by Ann Hawker’s killer set for big screen

A BOOK written by the Japanese man who raped and killed young teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker is to be made into a movie, the producer said.

Tatsuya Ichihashi spent more than two-and-a-half years on the run after the brutal 2007 killing and even had plastic surgery to evade capture.

He was finally caught in November 2009 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in July. He has appealed the sentence.

After his arrest, Ichihashi described his life as a fugitive in the book Taiho Sarerumade — Kuuhaku no Ninen Nanakagetsu no Kiroku (Until the Arrest — The Blank Two Years and Seven Months).

He detailed in the book how he travelled across Japan, from a tiny southern Okinawan island, where he lived off fish and snakes, to the western city of Osaka, where he worked on a construction site.

Ichihashi has previously offered to give royalties from the book to the family of the murdered teacher, or to use it for public good, but the family declined.

Ichihashi admitted raping Hawker before burying her battered naked body in a sand-filled bathtub.