Body-in-bathtub accused confesses in book to killing Briton

Tatsuya Ichihashi, who is to stand trial later this year over the alleged murder and rape of Ms Hawker, admits taking her life but does not elaborate on the crime or his motives.

He also apologises to her and her family, saying the book was intended as "a gesture of contrition for the crime I committed".

Ms Hawker was found dead in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Chiba, east of Tokyo, in March 2007. The 22-year-old, from Brandon, near Coventry, had been teaching in Japan after graduating from university in Leeds. Ichihashi was one of her students at an English language school.

Police arrested Ichihashi, 32, in Osaka, in western Japan, on November 10, 2009. In police questioning, he admitted assaulting Hawker but denied intention to kill her. He has been in custody since.

Ichihashi said he hoped to give royalties from the book, titled Until the Arrest, to the Hawker family, and if rejected, use it for a good cause, his lawyers said in a statement.

While at large, Ichihashi said he was in constant fear of arrest and obsessed with cosmetic surgery while travelling through 23 prefectures (states) across Japan, from Aomori in the north to the southern island of Okinawa.

"I was so scared that I ran away," he wrote in a 238-page book released by publishing house Gentosha, its cover depicting Ichihashi's drawing of himself – a man wearing a baseball cap and a surgical mask, looking down and carrying a knapsack.

"I ended up hurting not only the victim but also (the feelings of) many other people," he wrote.

After wandering around Tokyo, he drifted north to Aomori prefecture, where he lived homeless, before embarking on a pilgrimage tour of temples, wishing Ms Hawker could "come back to life".

When he started running out of money, he worked several construction jobs, in Okinawa and the western cities of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto for a total of more than two years, earning nearly one million yen – enough to cover the cost of plastic surgery twice.

He also attempted facial surgery himself. In one occasion he partly cut his lower lip with scissors to make it thinner. He also sliced off a pair of moles on the left cheek – prominent in a wanted photo of him released by police – with a box cutter. He also travelled four times to a tiny island off Okinawa, where he stayed in an abandoned hut, living on fruit and fish he caught and sometimes snakes – a hideout that has never been reported.

Ichihashi carefully avoided monitoring cameras at shops, and avoided eye contact with anyone. When there was any doubt, he immediately packed up and left. He never contacted his families or friends.

Work, mostly demolition of buildings, was tough, he said, but "this is the price I must pay. (Hawker) had to suffer more pain.

"I took Lindsay's life, that fact does not change," he wrote.

While at large, he read The Catcher in the Rye in English, the Harry Potter series that Ms Hawker recommended, and books by well-known Japanese author Haruki Murakami, including Kafka on the shore and 1Q84.

He said he neither had courage to turn himself in or kill himself to take responsibility for Ms Hawker's death.

Days after his second cosmetic surgery to alter his mouth, he saw TV news about his hospital visit and panicked, apparently after the hospital reported his visit to police.

He was arrested in Osaka while waiting for a ferry to Okinawa.

He refused to eat for two weeks after the arrest, "but I could not die", he said. "Before and after the escape, all I cared about was myself, after all."

Gentosha official Kanako Oshima said the book "could be a valuable document from criminal psychology standpoint" but declined to comment further.

Ms Hawker's family released a statement which read: "The Hawkers have no comments at this stage on the book the defendant is reportedly going to publish.

"They will not make any deals nor negotiations with the defence team outside of the court. They want justice for their daughter in the trial."