Richard Hinds has confessed to the murder of 21-year-old Irish exchange student Nicola Furlong in Tokyo on 24th May.

Richard Hinds (19) from Memphis, Tennessee was arrested on Thursday for strangling the County Wexford student who was on a university exchange in Japan. The American musician insists he did not mean to kill her.

The Japanese police say they believe Hinds killed Furlong when she refused his sexual advances, according to the Jiji Press. The accused said he pressed his hands around her neck but did not mean to kill her.

CCTV footage from the Keio Plaza Hotel, in Shinjuku, shows Hinds wheeling Furlong into his room in a wheelchair. Furlong appears to be unconscious. Police believe her drink may have been spiked. They are currently awaiting toxicology results.

Furlong’s body was found by a hotel employee near the bed in her room. Hinds was found standing close by. Kyodo news agency reported that there were no signs that anyone else had entered the room.

Earlier that evening Furlong and her friend, Sarah Maher (21), attended a Nicki Minaj concert. After the concert, the two Irish students took a taxi with Hinds, and his cohort James Blackston (23), an American dancer. 

The two Americans had been held in custody previously under suspicion of plying the girls with alcohol and groping them inside the taxi. Both men have now been charged with sexually assaulting Maher.