British Couple Murdered On Koh Tao

[pdogg]

 

At around 3pm in the 1^st of January 2015 police and rescue teams were called to a bungalow on Koh Tao where the body of a 29 year old French man was found hanging from the ceiling of his rented bungalow. Suspicions arose over what appeared to be a suicide when on further inspection it was discovered the man’s hands were tied behind his back. Wounds were discovered around the man’s neck as well as two 5cm lacerations to his arm, one near his wrist the second near to his elbow. It is thought the man had been dead for around two hours.

 

The door to the man’s bungalow, later identified as Dmitri, was open and there was no sign of a struggle. Police and rescue workers found a note on the man’s bed that suggested a recent love affair may have come to an end and that the man recently lost one of his grandparents, however questions are being asked as to how it is possible for anybody to commit suicide with their hand tied behind their back. An autopsy is expected to reveal whether or not that man was drugged.

http://www.samuitimes.com/french-man-found-hanged-koh-tao-hands-tied-behind-back-foul-play-suspected/

[pdogg]

 

The death of a 29 year old French Man found hanging from the balcony of his bungalow on January 1^st is being treated as a suicide, not as a murder, despite social media speculation around the death.

http://www.samuitimes.com/french-man-found-dead-koh-tao-incident-treated-suicide-not-homicide/

[Pdoggg]

I don't have all the facts but I think there is a reasonable chance that these two young lads are scapegoats.

 

 

Bar workers suspected of murdering two British ­backpackers are pleading with the victims’ family to make sure justice is done.

Burmese Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, both 22, go on trial next week accused of killing Hannah Witheridge and David Miller, found dead on a beach on the idyllic island of Koh Tao, Thailand.

The men, facing the death penalty if convicted, insist they did not kill David, 24, of Jersey, and Hannah, 23, of Hemsby, Norfolk, who had also been raped.

But the 22-year-old Burmese bar workers insist they are completely innocent of the crime on Koh Tao.

They said they only confessed after being tortured by Thai Police.

And the pair pleaded with the parents of 23-year-old Hannah and David, 24, to demand that Thai Police be “completely honest” in how they conducted their investigation.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/thailand-beach-murders-men-accused-5984017

[Pdoggg]

 

Crucial DNA evidence in the case of the murder of two British backpackers cannot be retested because it no longer exists, Thai police have told the BBC.

 

The evidence is central to the prosecution case against two Burmese migrants on trial for killing David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk.

 

The defence had wanted it re-examined.

 

It comes as Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, who both deny murder, rape and robbery, appear in court for a second day.

 

The judge in the trial had been due to make a decision on whether the DNA evidence could be independently verified.

Police tests

The tourists' bodies were found on a beach on the island of Koh Tao last September, sparking a major police investigation and intense local and international pressure to find those responsible.

 

Thai police claim DNA they gathered and tested in a police laboratory links both men to Miss Witheridge's body.

 

Speaking to the BBC, Lieutenant Colonel Somsak, who led the original investigation, said some of the original DNA samples had been "used up".

 

A hair sample found in Miss Witheridge's hand was among samples that were lost, he said.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Somsak said all police could offer the court was documentation of the results.

 

"There's nothing left. It was used up when we tested the first time," he said.

 

BBC Myanmar/Burma correspondent Jonah Fisher, who is in Koh Samui for the trial, said the DNA evidence had seemed like the strongest piece of evidence in a complex and confusing case - and now it cannot be independently verified.

 

The news will support the argument of those who believe the accused have been framed by the Thai authorities, our correspondent said.

Bodies 'unclothed'

On the opening day of the trial the first police officer to reach the murder scene described how the bodies were found a few metres apart, and were unclothed.

 

Mr Zaw and Mr Wai (also known as Win Zaw Htun), both 22, were arrested several weeks later.

 

They are said to have confessed to the crime but later retracted their statements.

 

The defendants have repeatedly stated their innocence over the murders, which happened on 15 September last year, with the defence alleging they were framed.

 

Verdicts in the case are not expected until October.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33457038

[Pdoggg]

They are now saying the DNA samples are not lost.

 

A spokesman said the erroneous report was due to foreign correspondents poor comprehension of the Thai language.

[Pdoggg]

I suspect these Burmese guys are being railroaded.

 

 

BANGKOK: Thai police failed to check CCTV footage from the only pier on the island where a pair of British tourists were murdered last year, a lawyer for the two Myanmar nationals accused of the killings said Thursday (Jul 23).

 

Migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun are on trial for the murder of 24-year-old David Miller and the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, on southern Koh Tao island in September.

 

Both men have pleaded not guilty and face the death penalty if convicted over a case which has tarnished Thailand's reputation as a tourist paradise and seen the police accused of bungling the investigation.

 

Under cross-examination Thursday a senior investigating police officer, Colonel Cherdpong Chiewpreecha, told a Koh Samui court that CCTV footage from the pier had not been examined after the double murders.

 

The pier is close to the beach were the battered bodies of the British holidaymakers were found and is the main route to and from the resort island.

 

"I asked whether police checked CCTV footage. He (the witness) replied no and that police had collected the footage but investigators thought it wasn't relevant," defence lawyer Nakhon Chomphuchat told AFP after the morning session.

 

The defence also alleged that a small boat was seen leaving the island shortly after the killings but the officer was unable to confirm this information.

 

Prosecutors have argued that DNA evidence implicates the two Myanmar migrants but the defence says an under-pressure police force have coerced confessions, later retracted, from the pair.

 

Attempts by the defence to independently test some of the key forensic evidence against their clients were thwarted after police told an earlier hearing that the samples had been used up.

 

The battered bodies of Miller and Witheridge were found on the sleepy diving island of Koh Tao on September 15.

 

Police say Miller had been struck by a single blow and left to drown in shallow surf while Witheridge had been raped and then beaten to death with a garden hoe.

 

Among a litany of apparent mistakes in the hours after the grisly discovery, Thai police were criticised for failing to secure the crime scene or close the pier.

 

The Myanmar pair are being tried on Koh Samui, near to Koh Tao. Reporters are not allowed to take notes during the trial which is expected to reach a verdict in October.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/koh-tao-murder-trail/2003156.html

[Whateva]

I suspect these Burmese guys are being railroaded.

 

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/koh-tao-murder-trail/2003156.html

Railroaded for sure . Poor buggers .

[Tomcat]

the western system is not much better ..as we mentioned before.. heard of plea bargain

[Pdoggg]

 

One of the men accused of murdering two British backpackers in Thailand last year has claimed that his 'confession' was obtained through torture.

 

Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, and David Miller, 24, from Jersey, were murdered on a beach on the island of Koh Tao in September 2014. It is understood that the two travellers had met on the island while staying at the same hotel.

 

Post mortem examinations showed that both had suffered severe head wounds, and that Ms Witheridge had been raped.

 

Two 22-year-old bar workers on the island, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, were accused of the murders. But as reported by Sky News, Lin has claimed that his initial confession to the murders was false, and obtained through torture.

 

He told a court on the neighbouring island of Koh Samui that he was woken up at night in October 2014 by ten men in the dormitory that he shared with other workers.

 

He said that he and other workers were handcuffed and taken outside. He was separated from the rest, and taken to somewhere that was not a police station.

 

He said that his interrogators suffocated him by putting plastic bags over his head, and repeatedly asked him: 'Did you kill?'

 

This procedure apparently continued until Lin collapsed.

 

Lin and Htun initially confessed to the murders and rape of Ms witheridge, but later retracted their confessions after they were given access to legal representation.

 

Lin's mother was forced to leave the courtroom and vomit after listening to his testimony.

 

Lin claims that on the night Witheridge and Miller were murdered, he was drinking with friends on the same beach.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/man-accused-of-murdering-british-backpackers-in-thailand-says-his-confession-was-obtained-through-torture-10483284.html

[duke007]

BBC News 15th Sept 2015

 

Thailand murders: Hannah Witheridge's family speak of 'torturous pain'

 

Hannah Witheridge's family said their lives "changed forever" on the day her murder

The family of a backpacker from Norfolk who was murdered in Thailand have spoken of their "torturous pain" one year on from her death.

Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Hemsby, was found dead on the island of Koh Tao on 15 September last year along with David Miller, 24, from Jersey.

Two Burmese men are on trial for their murders. They deny any involvement.

Miss Witheridge's family said learning of her death had been an "indescribably impossible time".

"Our beautiful Hannah was taken from us in the most horrific way possible," they said in a statement.

Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin deny the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller

"Losing someone you love is always difficult but losing someone so senselessly and unexpectedly, at such an early stage of their life, makes for an indescribably impossible time.

"Along with her bubbly and exciting personality, Hannah was extremely intelligent and after earning a degree with first class honours from the University of East Anglia, was working towards a masters degree in speech and language therapy in Essex.

"She would have gone on to make a significant difference to the lives of many people."

Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, who are both 22, initially confessed to the killings but later retracted their statements, saying they had been tortured.

Prosecutors say the men are linked to the killings by DNA evidence collected from cigarette butts, a condom and the bodies of the victims.

[Pdoggg]

 

 

 

THE governments of Thailand and Myanmar yesterday tried their best to calm the anger and dismay that led to protests outside the Thai Embassy in Yangon after a court sentenced two Myanmar migrant workers to death for the murder of two young British backpackers in 2014.

 

Yesterday, more than 1,000 Yangon residents showed up outside the Royal Thai Embassy from about 10.30am to protest and voice their dissatisfaction over the verdict.At the time of going to press, some 100 protesters were still camped outside the embassy, while monks lit candles in front of the building. 

 

The Criminal Court in Surat Thani province convicted Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun of the brutal murder and rape of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, on the island of Koh Tao. 

 

The Dagon township police forces blocked Manawhari Road by deploying more personnel than on Thursday, and also blocked the downtown Pyay Road. 

 

Demonstrators stood on both roads that led to the Thai Embassy, with many holding signs saying "Shameless Thailand government", "Save Myanmar Poor Boys" and "Free Our Innocent Citizens", while others screamed "We want justice".

 

"This is just discrimination against us," demonstrator Min Thein Khaing told AFP. "There was little evidence, no witnesses and not much DNA proof, but they still got sentenced to death. It is unfair!" 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thai-and-Myanmar-govts-try-to-calm-anger-over-deat-30275732.html

[Pdoggg]

 

The commissioner of the Royal Thai Police said yesterday the authorities are investigating the Facebook post of Laura Witheridge, sister of Koh Tao murder victim Hannah, in which she slammed Thailand over the “bungled” murder investigation.

 

Chakthip Chaijinda said he had assigned the International Affairs Division to translate Laura's Facebook post to inspect whether it violates any laws.

 

In the lengthy Facebook post on Jan. 10, Laura, whose sister Hannah was brutally murdered on Koh Tao in 2014, called the investigation "bungled" and accused the Thai authorities of using her family for press photo opportunities by lying that they were going to give the family an update on the investigation.

 

She also wrote she had been threatened, chased, and offered bribes by Thais.

http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/01/14/police-consider-prosecuting-koh-tao-victims-sister-over-thailand-criticism