Tokyo: A Japanese man charged in the 2007 slaying of a British woman admits in a book he wrote in jail that he took her life and repeatedly attempted cosmetic surgery on himself to change his appearance during his 2= years as a fugitive.

Tatsuya Ichihashi, who is to stand trial later this year in the alleged murder and rape of Lindsay Ann Hawker, doesn't describe the crime or his motives in the book released Wednesday, instead focusing on his life at large. He does apologize to her and her family, saying the book was intended as "a gesture of contrition for the crime I committed."

Hawker, 22, was found dead in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of Ichihashi's apartment in Chiba, east of Tokyo, in March 2007. Ichihashi was one of her students at an English language school.

Police arrested Ichihashi, 32, in Osaka, in western Japan, on Nov. 10, 2009. In police questioning, he admitted assaulting Hawker, but denied intention to kill her. He has been in custody since.

The high-profile case captured attention in Japan and Britain as the Hawkers frequently visited the country where she taught and made tearful appeals for public support for his capture.

Desperately seeking to locate Ichihashi, investigators had offered the reward of 10 million yen ($121,000) for tips leading to his arrest. Police did not disclose who received the money.

Ichihashi said he hoped to give royalties from the book, titled "Until the Arrest," to the Hawker family, and if rejected, use it for a good cause, his lawyers said in a statement.

While at large, Ichihashi said he was in constant fear of arrest and obsessed with cosmetic surgery while traveling through 23 prefectures (states) across Japan, from Aomori in the north to the southern island of Okinawa.

"I was so scared that I ran away," he wrote in a 238-page book released by publishing house Gentosha, its cover depicting Ichihashi's drawing of himself - a man wearing a baseball cap and a surgical mask, looking down and carrying a knapsack.

"I ended up hurting not only the victim but also (the feelings of) many other people," he wrote.