Lindsay killer terrorised another girl from Britain

The young woman left her job in Japan and returned to the UK fearing for her safety after horticultural student Tatsuya Ichihashi followed her after apparently asking her to help him with his English.

Police and officials of the Nova Intercultural Institute, which employed Miss Hawker, refused to name the woman, who returned to Britain in September.

But his request for help to learn English bears ominous similarities to 28-year-old Ichihashi's approaches to Miss Hawker, who did agree to give him lessons in a private deal away from her regular job.

The two approaches confirm suggestions that Ichihashi had a dangerous obsession with foreign

women and, having failed the first time around, came up with a trick to lure Miss Hawker back to his apartment.

There she was beaten, tortured, stripped naked and had her neck broken before her body was dumped in a bath and covered in sand.

Tokyo police now believe Miss Hawker accompanied Ichihashi to his flat after he made her believe he did not have enough cash on him to pay for his first English lesson with her.

After studying CCTV security footage, police believe she met Ichihashi for the lesson in the Doutour cafe, in east Tokyo.

Afterwards she planned to leave to teach a class at the school where she was employed.

The couple sat at a table for 50 minutes before Ichihashi made a deliberate fuss of searching for enough money to pay for coffee and a snack.

The CCTV footage shows Miss Hawker about to reach into her bag, apparently to help him out. "It is possible that he told her that she should come to his flat so he could pay her for the lesson," said a police officer.

"From what we have gathered, it is unlikely she would have gone there to give the lesson with someone she didn't know well. She might have felt a little more at ease after sitting with the man for 50 minutes."

Ichihashi was not short of money. His wealthy parents - his father is a surgeon, his mother a dentist - had reportedly been sending him £500 a month and his accommodation was free as the flat is owned by his grandfather.

As the hunt for him continues, police sources said the phones of all his relatives and known friends were being monitored in case he tried to make contact.

They are convinced he is receiving help and are concerned that as the days go by since Miss Hawker's murder on March 25 the harder it will be to find him.

He will have had time to change his appearance, perhaps growing a beard or wearing a suit to lose himself among the millions of Japanese businessmen.

There is also concern that Ichihashi will kill again.

Police have confirmed that Miss Hawker's long brown hair was cut off and stuffed into a plastic bag that Ichihashi apparently planned to take with him after hiding her body in the bath. The plan was foiled when he had to flee from police who called at the flat the day after the murder.

The act of cutting off her hair has suggested to criminal profilers that the killer wanted it as a token, the action of a deviant who may now have an urge to collect further victim souvenirs.

It is believed that Miss Hawker's father Bill and her boyfriend, Ryan Garside, are due back in Britain today after Mr Hawker pleaded for help in catching Ichihashi, telling the Japanese people that his daughter's killer had brought shame on their country.