JAPAN: FATHER OF MISSING BRITON JANE BLACKMAN PLAYS DOWN SPECULATION THAT HIS DAUGHTER MAY HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED BY A RELIGIOUS CULT
Record ID:
469325
JAPAN: FATHER OF MISSING BRITON JANE BLACKMAN PLAYS DOWN SPECULATION THAT HIS DAUGHTER MAY HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED BY A RELIGIOUS CULT
- Title: JAPAN: FATHER OF MISSING BRITON JANE BLACKMAN PLAYS DOWN SPECULATION THAT HIS DAUGHTER MAY HAVE BEEN ABDUCTED BY A RELIGIOUS CULT
- Date: 13th July 2000
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JULY 13, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF BRITISH EMBASSY 0.05 2. CLOSE OF EMBASSY SIGN 0.10 3. LV: FATHER SITTING AT PRESS CONFERENCE 0.16 4. SCU: SOUNDBITE (English) TIMOTHY BLACKMAN, FATHER OF MISSING WOMAN SAYING: "We came away from the police yesterday with the impression they are following all lines of inv
- Embargoed: 28th July 2000 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Reuters ID: LVA55K14QWCEXF04GYUOMWCXYV8E
- Story Text: The father of a former British Airways flight
attendant who has been missing for nearly two weeks in Japan
has told reporters that the police are still unsure what has
happened to his daughter.
Briton Timothy Blackman arrived in Japan on Wednesday
(July 12) and has since held several meetings with Japanese
police.
A missing persons report was filed on his daughter Lucie
Jane Blackman on July 4 by a friend with whom she was
traveling and staying in Japan, after Blackman failed to
return from an afternoon errand on July 1.
"We came away from the police yesterday with the impression
they are following all lines of investigation and while there
is a lot of speculation about her disappearance, they are
taking a broad view of the possibilities at this stage",
Timothy Blackman told reporters on Thursday (July 13).
Blackman said he last heard from his missing daughter three
weeks ago when she telephoned him.
He said it was unlikely she might have joined a cult.
"Lucie is a Roman Catholic and whilst she wasn't she wasn't
a great practicing Roman Catholic she took not a large
interest in religion generally, and the thought that she may
have become interested in a religious cult over a Saturday
afternoon is very unlikely".
He denied speculation that her disappearance might have
been debt related. "It is not correct to link that
disappearance to a debt problem, she had been working with
British Airways with a sensible and good salary, and she
simply had a High street bank overdraft, an outstanding
"Diners Club type bill" of about 6,000 pounds and it
certainly was not giving her any great stress, it was a
perfectly normally managed overdraft and credit card bill",
Blackman insisted.
Lucie Blackman's younger sister Sophie also made an appeal
for information. "I am sure you will appreciate that my sister
is missing, I just want her to come home and anyone who can
help will be greatly appreciated", she told reporters.
Police say they are investigating the case and cannot not
rule out that the 21-year-old, from Sevenoaks in Kent, had
been kidnapped.
Police said Blackman's traveling companion, Louise
Phillips, had received telephone calls from a man saying she
had been taken for training in a new religious cult.
A British embassy official said Blackman arrived in Japan
in May on a tourist visa and had been doing part-time work
while traveling around the country. The official said the
embassy was working closely with the Japanese police.
Blackman was believed to have been working as a bar hostess
before she disappeared.
While kidnappings are rare in Japan, much media attention
has centered on religious cults, some of which have resorted
to extreme methods to recruit and keep members.
The Aum Shinri Kyo -- or Supreme Truth -- cult, blamed for
killing 12 people and injuring thousands by releasing poison
sarin gas in the Tokyo subways in 1995, had used violence to
keep members.
ljw
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