A Japanese man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and killing British woman Lindsay Ann Hawker and burying her naked body in a sand-filled bathtub in 2007.
In a case that horrified Japan and sparked intense public interest, Tatsuya Ichihashi (32) had been living in the apartment where the body of the English teacher (22) was found.
When police arrived to question him he fled the apartment and eluded a massive manhunt for nearly three years. He even mutilated his face to change his appearance.
"We can assume that the defendant had an intention to murder the victim when he put pressure on her neck," said presiding judge Masaya Hotta of Chiba District Court, near Tokyo.
"It is impossible to measure the victim's regret, having to end in such a devastating situation her 22-year-old life that was filled with many possibilities," the judge said.
Ichihashi said in earlier sessions of the trial he did not assault Ms Hawker and denied he intended to kill her, saying he was unaware he was suffocating her and tried to revive her.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, saying Ichihashi had raped and assaulted Ms Hawker after tying her wrists and ankles together. They said he later suffocated her, fearing police would find out what he had done. They rejected his argument that he tried to revive her and said he failed to call an ambulance.
Ms Hawker's parents travelled from Britain to hear the verdict. Her mother wiped tears from her face and nodded several times as she listened to the verdict.
Ichihashi, in a black shirt and grey pants, with a mop of curly hair, did not move as the verdict was being read out.
After he went missing, police offered up to €90,000 (10 million yen) as a reward for information leading to his arrest. A visit to a plastic surgeon ultimately led to Ichihashi's arrest in 2009 after the doctor contacted the police. He was caught at a port in western Japan, where he was waiting for a ferry to the southern island of Okinawa.
A former student of horticulture, Ichihashi published a bestseller this year detailing his life on the run, including sewing his own nose to change his appearance and living on a remote island spending his days fishing. He said the sales proceeds should go to Hawker's family or charity.
About 950 people lined up for about 60 places to listen to the verdict inside the courtroom.