A court has found a Japanese man not guilty of rape resulting in the death of Briton Lucie Blackman in 2000 but sentenced him to life in prison for a series of other rapes, including a fatal one.
One-time property developer Joji Obara (54) had been charged with 10 cases of rape, including drugging, raping and killing Ms Blackman, a 21-year-old former British Airways flight attendant who was working as a hostess when she disappeared in July 2000.
Obara was found guilty by the Japanese court of nine charges - eight charges of rape including two resulting in injury, and one charge of raping, drugging and causing the death of Carita Ridgway (21), an Australian hostess who died in hospital in 1992, the court said.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, the heaviest possible punishment for rape resulting in death.
The verdict in what experts had called Japan's worst sex crime case is likely to cause outrage in Britain, where Ms Blackman's death attracted huge attention due to her family's campaign to find her.
Obara had denied all the charges, and his lawyer told reporters he was likely to appeal the verdict.
Ms Blackman was working at a hostess bar in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district, where men pay hundreds of dollars to drink and chat with the women.
She vanished on July 1st, 2000, after saying she was going for a drive with a man.
Prosecutors said Obara took her to his beachfront condominium near Tokyo that day and knocked her unconscious with drug-laced drinks before raping her. Police found her remains - including a severed head encased in concrete - seven months later in a cave by the sea 250 metres from Obara's condominium.
Obara had told the court that he had drinks and watched videos with Blackman in his room that night but claimed she was fine when he left her the next day.