The Tokyo High Court Thursday dismissed an appeal by a 28-year-old man who has been sentenced to life in prison for abducting, raping and murdering a college student from Taiwan who was traveling in Japan.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>According to the April ruling by the Kofu District Court, which was upheld by the appeals court, Takahiro Watanabe forced Hsiao Jen-chiao, 21, into his car in the town of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, around midnight on June 28, 2004. </PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>He drove her around in Shizuoka Prefecture, and then raped and strangled her and dumped her corpse in a street gutter in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi Prefecture, on the afternoon of June 29.</PARAGRAPH> <PARAGRAPH>Presiding Judge Fumio Yasuhiro said: 'It is an atrocious crime. The –

of the blameless woman whose life was taken away in a foreign land is beyond imagination."

Watanabe pleaded guilty to murdering Hsiao and dumping her body but maintained his innocence on the other charges, including abduction with the intent of molestation, rape and confinement, claiming he neither forced her into the car nor tied her.

The judge called this argument irrational and incredible.

Hsiao was on a group tour.