Lucie suspect must stay in custody

Lucie Blackman worked in Tokyo's Roppongi area

A man being questioned about the disappearance of Briton Lucie Blackman has had an appeal against his detention in police custody rejected.

Joji Obara has been served with five arrest warrants since being taken into custody, three judges at Tokyo District Court heard on Wednesday

His lawyers claimed the warrants had been served to keep him in a police cell - rather than a Justice Ministry detention house - with the aim of extracting a confession from him.

Mr Obara, 48, was initially detained on 12 October last year in connection with the rape of a Canadian bar hostess in March 1996.

Hostess bar

The fifth warrant was served on 4 January, when he was charged with drugging and raping a Japanese woman in her 20s in January 1999.

Mr Obara, the president of a real estate company, has not been charged with any offence in relation to Ms Blackman.

He has said he was served by her at the hostess bar where she worked in Tokyo's Roppongi nightlife area.

But he denies having anything to do with her disappearance.

Went missing

Ms Blackman went missing on 1 July last year after saying she was going for a seaside day-trip with an unidentified customer from the bar.

She had said the customer had promised to buy her a mobile phone.

Later a man rang a friend of Ms Blackman's to say that the 22-year-old had joined a cult and would not be returning.

This call has been traced to Mr Obara's mobile telephone, according to reports in Japan.

'Having sex'

In December last year, further reports said Japanese police had matched several strands of hair found in Mr Obara's bathroom with DNA provided by Ms Blackman's family in Kent.

Police said the test had "just about conclusively" proved that Mr Obara had taken Ms Blackman back to his flat, south-west of Tokyo, the reports claimed.

The next hearing in Mr Obara's trial on the first two counts of rape has been set for 24 January.