Forced to witness my daughter's rape
Saturday 7th July 2007
Like any mum would, Annette Foster worried about her daughter Carita Ridgway, 21, working in a hostess bar in Japan. But the money was good and Annette knew Carita needed the money to go to drama school.
Then a few months later, Annette's other daughter Samantha, 22, rang.
'Carita's got food poisoning. She's in a coma,' she cried.
Annette rushed to Japan and just days later, she had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn off Carita's life support machine.
But even through her grief, Annette knew things didn't add up. Doctors said Carita's liver had failed. How – and why?
One person who seemed to know more was Akira Nishida, the Japanese man who'd first brought Carita to hospital. But he just claimed Carita had eaten dodgy shellfish.
Annette was forced to return home, not knowing exactly how or why her daughter died.
Then eight years later, a phonecall turned Annette's life upside down. It turned out Akira Nishida was actually called Joji Obara and he'd been arrested on suspicion of raping and killing 21 year old Lucie Blackman. What's more, when police raided Obara's home, they found 400 home movies he'd made of himself apparently raping girls…
'We need you to identify Carita from a video,' an officer told Annette.
She was forced to watch as Carita appeared unconscious on the screen. Obara hovered above her, wearing a Zorro mask.
'That's her,' Annette wept.
It was every mum's worst nightmare but at least now there was a chance for justice. Just a few months later, Annette finally faced her daughter's killer in court…
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