Nicola Furlong's Dad's 'Blood Boils In Court'

The father of a murdered Irish exchange student has said his "blood boils" as he listens to evidence from a man accused of killing her.

Nicola Furlong's parents Andrew and Angie, and her sister Andrea, are in Japan - where they will tell the court on Tuesday about the impact her death has had on them.

US musician Richard Hinds, 19, from Memphis, Tennessee, has admitted lightly pressing on the 21-year-old's neck but denies killing her intentionally.

Mr Furlong said it is very hard to listen to Hinds, who told the court Ms Furlong was very drunk and asked him to place his hand on her neck.

"We knew that we had to sit and listen and we knew what was going to come out, but that doesn't make it any easier to actually hear it," he said.

"No parent should have to go through it. But we're not the first and we won't be the last. It could happen to somebody else next week."

Mr Furlong added: "There are times my blood is boiling and I want to go and grab (Hinds) and grab the defence by the throat for everything they've been saying but you just can't."

Miss Furlong, a Dublin City University undergraduate from Curracloe, Co Wexford, was found unconscious in an upmarket hotel in central Tokyo last May.

She was studying and living about 62 miles (100km) north of the capital, at Takasaki City University of Economics as part of an exchange programme.

On the night she was strangled, she travelled with an Irish friend by train to Tokyo to see US rapper Nicki Minaj in concert.

Afterwards the pair met Hinds and James Blackston, a 23-year-old professional dancer from Los Angeles, and the four went to a bar where they had drinks and danced.

Police were called to the Keio Plaza Hotel when a loud noise was heard from Hinds' room in the early hours and Ms Furlong was found unconscious. She died later in hospital.

The four revellers were earlier captured on a taxi surveillance camera making their way back to the hotel.

The recording showed the two women apparently unconscious, while CCTV from the hotel revealed the two men used wheelchairs to get them to their rooms.

In a separate trial, Blackston denied sexually assaulting Ms Furlong's unidentified friend, known as Victim A. She told the hearing she could not remember anything after taking a drink given to her during the evening.