Dismembered remains 'identified as missing Lucie'

Police in Japan have identified the dismembered remains found in a beachside cave near Tokyo as those of British bar hostess Lucie Blackman.

The Kyodo News Agency says the missing 22-year-old has been identified by dental records.

Tokyo Police are expected to call a press conference later.

The former British Airways stewardess disappeared in July while she was working in a bar in the Japanese capital.

She told a friend she was going on a drive to the ocean with a customer who promised to buy her a mobile phone.

Her disappearance led to one of Japan's highest-profile missing persons cases in years. Her father came to Japan to conduct his own search and later made a personal appeal to Tony Blair and other British politicians for help.

The dismembered body was dug up near the seaside apartment of a businessman who was arrested in October and accused of drugging and raping several women, including a Canadian hostess and another Briton.

Joji Obara, 48, pleaded not guilty in both cases, saying he had consensual sex with the women. He has not been charged in relation to Blackman.

The corpse was cut into eight parts and the head was encased in concrete, police announced Friday after unearthing it in a cave on a beach in Miura, a resort community southwest of Tokyo.

Her parents have been informed and a press conference is to be held in Japan now.