Innocent Plea in Death of British Bar Hostess
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A Japanese businessman pleaded innocent to charges he raped and killed a 21-year-old British bar hostess whose dismembered body was found in a beachside cave.
Joji Obara, a 48-year-old real estate developer who faces up to life in prison if convicted, told Tokyo District Court that he and Lucie Blackman were together at his condominium, but he denied charges of fatally drugging her and sexually assaulting her after she fell unconscious.
Obara also pleaded innocent to charges that he fatally drugged and raped Carita Ridgway, an Australian woman, in 1992.
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