A PRETTY student was suffocated to death while having sex with an aspiring musician after partying at a Nicki Minaj concert, a court heard.
Nicola Furlong, 21, had returned to her hotel room in Tokyo with Richard Hinds, 19, following the gig.
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Tragic ... Nicola Furlong and Richard Hinds
Hinds is accused of getting her drunk then drugging her before strangling the unconscious girl with a towel.
He and his pal James Blackston, 23, had allegedly taken Nicola and her friend by taxi to a hotel in central Tokyo where they borrowed wheelchairs to get the unconscious women to their rooms, a jury was told.
Crime scene ... Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo which Nicola died
Nicola, a Dublin City University undergraduate from Curracloe, County Wexford, was later found unconscious in her room after another guest complained of a loud noise. She was rushed to hospital but later died.
Pretty ... Nicola had been at a Nicky Minaj gig with a pal
Hinds, from Memphis, Tennessee in the US, admits he had “lightly pressed her neck” while the two had sex but denies murder.
Blackston, from Los Angeles, faces charges of sexually assaulting Nicola’s friend in a separate room.
Nicola had come to Tokyo with a friend to see US rapper Nicki Minaj in concert where she met Hinds and professional dancer Blackston, who claims to have appeared in music videos for Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown and Jennifer Lopez.
Shocking taxi CCTV footage later that evening shows Nicola and her friend unconscious as they travelled back to the hotel.
The footage, which has not been released by police, shows Blackston allegedly sexually assaulting the friend in the cab.
The pair are recorded talking excitedly about sex as the women sat apparently unconscious, reports said.
The defence suggested she died of an overdose of alcohol and drugs.
“I do not believe I was the cause of her death,” Hinds told the court. “I had no intent or reason to hurt, harm or kill her.”
Nicola had been studying and living about 60 miles north at Takasaki City University of Economics as part of an exchange programme.
Hinds graduated from high school in 2011 and then moved to Japan in April 2012 to pursue his music career.
The Tokyo trial is expected to last more than a week. Nicola's parents Andrew and Angie and her sister Andrea are staying in the city to await the verdict and any sentencing.
Although murder can carry the death penalty in Japan, prosecutors are not expected to seek it. Blackston faces a maximum of four years if found guilty of assaulting Ms Furlong's friend.
Speaking to The Irish Sun, Andrea said: “Her killer ended not only her life but our lives as well. He doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as us.”
Andrea added: “My parents aren’t interested in the death sentence but I am.
“I’m hoping that if he doesn’t get the death penalty that he rots. He doesn’t deserve to have been the last one to see her breathing either.”
The verdict for Hinds is scheduled to be announced on March 19. Blackston's trial continues.
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