The father of Lucie Blackilometresan, a young Briton who went missing in Japan over two months ago, hinted yesterday he would be willing to pay ransom to a "religious cult" if her disappearance was linked to such a group.

Japanese media have reported that Lucie's roommate, Louise Phillips, received a call from a man giving his name as Akira Takagi to say Lucie was training with a religious cult and would be in meditation for at least a week. Although Timothy Blackilometresan had previously expressed doubts that his daughter had any links to a religious cult, yesterday he said that if it was an issue of money involved in initiating Lucie into a cult, he would be willing to pay to get her out.

(China Daily 2000/09/20)