The pain of Nicola’s murder in Tokyo never lifts
Just 21 years old when she was strangled in a city hotel, for her father and family...
EIGHT years has passed since the murder of Irish student Nicola Furlong in a Japanese hotel, but her father has said ‘there’s never been a good day’ since her death and that his hatred for her killer has grown as he tries to deal with the pain of her loss.
Tomorrow marks eight years since news of the 21-year-old Wexford DCU student’s brutal killing rocked the nation and irrevocably changed her family’s lives forever.
On May 24, 2012, Nicola was found strangled to death in the Keio Plaza hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.
Nicola, who was on a year’s study abroad, had been enjoying a night out at a Nicki Minaj concert with her friend when a chance encounter with two American men led to her murder in the most devastating of circumstances.
Musician Richard Hinds was found guilty of her murder in March 2013. The then 19-year-old was given a sentence of a minimum of five years and a maximum of ten years with labour. He remains in jail in Tokyo.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Nicola’s father Andrew said that his daughter’s room remains untouched and will do so as long as he is there.
In a poignant interview, he also admitted that he still hasn’t come to terms with Nicola’s death and that the love and loss of his daughter continues to loom large in his life.
Andrew, who with his ex-wife Angie and other daughter Andrea attended every day of Hinds’s murder trial, told the Mail: ‘It feels like 120 years ago, and like yesterday all at the same time. To lose a child is a certain type of grief.’
For the first time since Nicola’s death, her family were unable to mark her anniversary with her large circle of friends due to Covid-19 restrictions. A Mass will be arranged when restrictions on church gatherings are lifted.
For Andrew, every day is one filled with thoughts of his beloved daughter. Her bedroom in his Curracloe home remains completely untouched.
Every night since she died, he lights five electric candles in her bedroom.
‘There’s not a thing has been changed in her room. Every time I pass it I can see her sitting on her bed and saying, “Hi, Dad”. I hoover it once a week and I light the candles for her every night. Her bedroom is her bedroom and it’ll remain that until I’m no longer in this house,’ he said.
Life has continued over the past eight years for Andrew and the rest of the Furlong family, but even the good times are difficult due to the huge void left by Nicola’s senseless murder.
His other daughter Andrea, Nicola’s younger sister, gave birth to a baby daughter a number of months ago. This has been a great source of joy, explains Andrew, but nothing can ever take away the pain of his eldest daughter’s death.
‘I have two children, two beautiful daughters. The two of them were a gift from God and one of them was taken too early. There’s never been a good day for me since Nicola died. Don’t get me wrong, Andrea’s baby, that’s a great joy. But when your child dies, you have to try and come to terms with it. I haven’t,’ he admits.
The circumstances of the young student’s death, so far from home, laid bare at her killer’s trial, are still difficult for her father to come to terms with.
Passing sentence in 2013, the chief judge told the court that Richard Hinds showed ‘no remorse’ and ‘tainted the honour’ of his 21-year-old victim.
Another man, James Blackston, a 23-year-old dancer, was jailed for a sexual assault on Nicola’s friend. Blackston has since been released.
Nicola, an international business student in DCU, was studying at Takasaki City University of Economics for the third year of her degree.
The two Irish women had met the American men after a Nicki Minaj concert and then took a taxi to the Keio Plaza hotel, where Nicola died by suffocation. During legal proceedings, Hinds admitted to placing his hands on her neck for a prolonged period. Hinds testified that he and Blackston were reluctant participants in the tragic events and even tried to claim he was approached by two women who wanted to ‘party’.
Neither was interested in sex with the women, they claimed, they were simply being kind when they took them back to the hotel.
But their story was soon revealed as a web of lies. A recording – full of leering, predatory braggadocio – of the two men speaking in the taxi to the hotel was played in court.
‘These b*tches fell into our lap,’ said one of the men. Then Blackston spoke crudely about the prospect of sex with them.
At one stage the men exchanged fist bumps. The judges eventually concluded Hinds intended to rape the unconscious Nicola.
At his trial, the chief judge said: ‘It can be recognised that the defendant suffocated the victim to death, by strangling her with a towel or a string-like item with the intention of killing her.’
The court took account of the killer’s age, but the judge said he was entirely to blame.
HE SAID: ‘The victim was only spending a night out with her friend… after a concert they had looked forward to. She bears none of the fault for the consequences of that night.’
Andrew has no desire to ever meet, or speak to, his daughter’s killer.
As Hinds was tried as a minor, hanging was not a sentence option. In Japan, suspects are a minor in the eyes of the law until the age of 20.
At that time, Nicola’s father said publicly that regardless of the law, he did not wish to see the Memphis musician die as a consequence.
But the passing of the years has given Andrew plenty of time to reflect.
‘Eight years ago, I said I wouldn’t like to see that happen to that man. But eight years ago, I didn’t realise what the pain would be like to try and deal with this. My hatred for him has grown,’ he says candidly.
‘My answer to that question now would be slightly different.’
Aside from seeing him at his Tokyo trial, Andrew has never come face to face with Hinds.
‘I would never want to meet that man. What could he possibly say? And there is not a thing I have to say to that man.
‘He got ten years, I was hoping for a much longer sentence. He has done this once and showed no remorse. Who is to say he wouldn’t do this again?’
When Andrew recalls his eldest daughter, he tries to bring to mind happy memories of her living her life in Wexford. But mostly the tragedy of her death is the first thought that infiltrates his mind.
‘She lost her life at 3.30am in Tokyo, and mine went to pieces shortly after 8am when gardaí knocked on my door,’ he recalls.
Andrew has continued to work, at the well-known family pub, Furlongs, in Curralcoe since his daughter’s death.
‘I’ve kept occupied, I’ve kept working, though obviously not at
the moment. Work has been a distraction. But Nicola is still the last thing I think of when I close my eyes at night and the first thing I think of when I wake,’ he said.
THE grieving father has also tried to reach out and help other families dealing with loss in Wexford and further afield. Two years ago, a new memorial garden, offering a place of peace and solace for those grieving the loss of young people, was opened by Andrew.
Cuan Aingeal (Angel Harbour) is located in Ardcavan, opposite the Riverbank House Hotel. The garden had its roots in a vigil held in the aftermath of the death of Nicola.
The group of bereaved relatives now meet on the first Monday evening of every month at Riverbank House Hotel to talk and offer support to one another.
‘It’s for everyone now, not just people from Wexford or parents who lost children, it’s for anyone who is grieving and all are welcome.
‘I’d like to see one garden of remembrance like Cuan Aingeal in every county in Ireland,’ he said.
In the immediate aftermath of the 21-year-old’s murder, some €100,000 was raised to help the family with the high costs of attending the trial in Tokyo.
When all expenses were covered there was still €70,000 left over. Some €8,000 went to the Nicola Furlong scholarship at DCU.
The remainder was donated to six deserving local causes, four young people who needed life-changing or life-saving procedures, and two local groups which provide support for those with autism and multiple sclerosis.
‘There was such an outpouring of grief and support from the Irish people, our family will never forgot that,’ recalls Andrew.
‘I bumped into a woman in Tesco a while back, her child’s life had been saved by the money donated. She just came up and thanked me.
‘So it’s some comfort that there is that legacy for Nicola. And that legacy is forever.
‘That will live on, in those other young people’s lives that were changed and saved.
‘It’s also a legacy to the people of Ireland. For their kindness towards the memory of my daughter.’