The killer of 21-year-old Irish student Nicola Furlong will remain in prison after Japanese authorities concluded he had shown insufficient remorse to be released.
In March 2013 American Richard Hinds, then 19-year-old, was found guilty of strangling Furlong in a Tokyo hotel room after she cried out for help to stop him raping her.
The judge sentenced him to a minimum of five years and maximum of ten years behind bars with labor and decried his lack of remorse and attempts to blacken her name during the trial.
At the time Furlong’s sister, Andrea, called for the court to impose the death penalty on Hinds.
“I have so much anger and hatred towards this man,” she said in a victim impact statement.
“I want him to suffer... He took someone from us and ruined all our lives, so a life for a life.”
Read More: Judges in tears as Nicola Furlong’s sister asks Tokyo court for death sentence
However 19-year-olds are still treated as minors by the Japanese judicial system and Hinds received the maximum penalty provided by law.
The Furlong family however were disgusted that he could walk free within a few years and Andrea said at the time, “I am disgusted by the sentencing. I just want to leave Japan, go home and never return.”
Read More: Family anger at sentence as Hinds found guilty of Nicola Furlong murder
That possibility of Hinds being freed however has now been denied - at least for the time being - after prison authorities castigated him for his callous indifference to the heinous crime he committed.
Since he began serving behind bars he’s been required to attend numerous courses that aim to rehabilitate him. Documents obtained by the Sunday World however suggest that so far the courses have had no impact on him and he remains indifferent to his crime.
“I have never believed a man capable of doing what that monster did to my daughter is capable of changing,” Furlong’s father, Andrew, told the Irish Independent.
“He preyed on an unconscious and helpless girl, my beautiful Nicola,and subjected her to a horrific death. The Japanese authorities let us down when they gave him a sentence of just five to 10 years for Nicola's murder. I hope they will not let us down again.”
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