INTERVIEW
- life
It’s now time to
draw a line and get
on with my life
Tim Blackman has been pilloried in
the press for taking ‘blood money’
from the man on trial for killing his
daughter Lucie.
Just weeks before he flies out to
Tokyo for the sentencing decision
on Joji Obara, the Ryde businessman
spoke to Island Life about why he
accepted the cash, his plans for the
money and how, after April 24th,
he hopes to put the whole terrible
ordeal of the last seven years behind
him.
Tim was just getting back on his
feet when he received the call that
is every parent’s nightmare: your
daughter is missing.
He had lost everything in the
property crash of 1990 and five
years later had been through a bitter
marriage break-up.
But just at the time that his
fledgling new businesses were
starting to make any money he
dropped everything to search for
Lucie.
He says: “This steam roller of
shock starts to work through your
body.
“On the outside I appeared calm
and together but there was this
tsunami of emotion going on inside.
“You could sit me down to talk
with someone but when I got up I
wouldn’t have any recollection of
what had been said or even of the
name of the person I had spoken to.
“I certainly couldn’t continue
working. It was impossible for
me to go into a bank and discuss
investments for such and such a
project.”
He and his daughter Sophie
worked tirelessly in Japan to cajole
the Japanese authorities into action.
When Tim first went to the Tokyo
police to report his missing daughter
they turned him away but within
weeks there were 150 officers on
the case.
In the years that followed the
discovery of his daughter’s body in a
cave on a beach just outside Tokyo,
the tragedy continued to have a
devastating effect on his family.
Sophie attempted suicide just after
her sister’s body was finally laid to
rest and their brother Rupert has
also not been well.
This is the background against
which Tim finally, after eight long
months of deliberation, agreed to
accept the £442,000 offered to his
family by a friend of Joji Obara.
Tim was subjected to fierce
criticism in the press from his exwife Jane.
She described his decision as
“revolting” and refused to take any
money herself.
She also said that both son Rupert
and daughter Sophie were against
their father accepting any money.
Tim admits that taking the cash
was always going to be contentious
but that it was a decision he made
after balancing many factors.
These included the personal costs
to him of travelling and staying for
extensive periods in Japan and the
effect this had on his businesses and
personal earning potential.
He also had the future security of
his family to consider which now
includes his partner of ten years, Jo,
and her four children.
He says: “My responsibility is
looking after the future of the people
who are living.
“My daughter Sophie is 27 now.
She was 19 when Lucie went
missing – that ‘s a big chunk of her
life.
“And the same chunk for me was
in the prime period of my life from
the age of 45 to 53.
“In the last few years I could have
made a lot of money in the property
business but because of all this I
haven’t been able to concentrate on
that 100 percent.
“You know, I ain’t got much time
left and my feeling was this will
make a difference to my family.
“It’s not going to make a difference
to Lucie. It’s not going to bring her
back and it’s not going to make a
difference to how we love her and
how we think about her.
“I think Lucie would say take the
money. She was a progressive.
“She moved forward and she
always had an optimistic outlook.
“She would not have wanted her
family to be stuck in a position from
which they could not move forward.
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