A 19-year-old African-American musician has admitted to strangling an Irish student in Tokyo but insists that he didn’t mean to kill her

Japanese police have arrested Richard Hinds, from Memphis, Tennessee, on suspicion of murdering Nicola Furlong, 21, in a hotel room on May 24, 2012. Police suspect that Hinds killed Furlong after she refused his sexual advances. Hinds, who graduated from Central High School Memphis and moved to Japan in April 2012 to pursue his music career, was captured on CCTV wheeling the student to his room at the Keio Plaza Hotel in the city’s Shinjuku district at around 1 a.m. on May 24, 2012. In the footage, Furlong appears to be unconscious in the wheelchair. Police believe that her drink may have been spiked and are waiting on toxicology results. Hinds and fellow African-American James Blackston, a 23-year-old backing dancer, had already been arrested previously on suspicion of plying Furlong and her 21-year-old Irish female friend with alcoholic drinks, and groping her inside a taxi. Both men were charged with sexually assaulting Furlong's friend.