Couple Murdered in Koh Tao (Thailand)

Raping someone generally isn't something that just happens as some sort of afterthought. Neither is beating in people's faces with a garden hoe.
 
Keenst said:
Raping someone generally isn't something that just happens as some sort of afterthought. Neither is beating in people's faces with a garden hoe.
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You would be surprised at what people are capable of once the opportunity presents itself
 
Pexbo said:
What makes you think it's a Robbery? I thought it sounded more like someone stumbled across the two of them having sex and was either offended or jealous and an argument probably followed.
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Yeah I think so too. Someone tried to take the girl and the guy tried to stop them. We'll probably never know for sure unfortunately
 
Thailand beach murders: police make suspects reconstruct killing of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller

Two men who police say have confessed to the murder of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on a beach on the island of Koh Tao, are brought to the scene of the crime and are made to take part in a reconstruction

Thailand's police have staged a chaotic reconstruction of the murder of two British tourists in Koh Tao.

Tourists lined up to film the event and one couple had to be told not to cross police lines as the police brought the two Burmese bar workers to the beach where the bodies of Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24, were discovered.

The workers, who allegedly confessed to killing the tourists, were wearing protective vests and helmets.

The country's national police chief, General Somyot Poompanmoung, has said the suspects face charges of murder, rape and theft.

The battered bodies were found on the beach on Koh Tao on September 15.

Gen Poompanmoung said DNA results, CCTV footage and other evidence had underpinned the men's confessions that they raped and killed Ms Witheridge and murdered Mr Miller. The men have been identified by police with only one name each, "Saw" and "Win". Police have previously claimed that Asian DNA samples were recovered from the corpse of Miss Witheridge. Mr Miller's father, Ian, has said he believes his son stepped in to help Miss Witheridge.

Col Kissana Phathanacharoen, a commander involved in the investigation, defended the crime scene reconstruction as an opportunity "to get a sense of what happened" to supplement the DNA tests and gathering forensic and CCTV evidence.

"We have also received useful information from the locals," he said.

But with hundreds of onlookers the scene did little to shore up confidence in Thai police methods. Indeed the suspects appeared to be taking stage directions from the police on how to carry out the re-enactment.

One police chief said the quick resolution of the case would result in a speedy recovery of tourism numbers on the island. Jaktip Chaijinda, the deputy head of national police, said:

"Today the case should be finished because we want to clear this case up as soon as possible so that our tourism industry can bounce back."

Post-mortem examinations revealed that Ms Witheridge, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, died from head wounds, while Mr Miller, from Jersey, was killed by severe blows to the head and drowning.

A bloodstained garden hoe was found near the scene.

Rights activists have expressed concern over the lack of legal representation for the men.

"The suspects have been kept without legal representation. We still don't have lawyers observing the process directly," said Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, a human rights activist.

"So we are suspicious about the judicial process in terms of these alleged confessions."

A police spokesman said the suspects had made no request for lawyers.

"They haven't asked for lawyers. If they had asked for lawyers we would have provided lawyers for them as this is their basic right," he said.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ckers-Hannah-Witheridge-and-David-Miller.html

Not to pre-judge things but if I was related to the victims I'd be very worried by the look of this investigation...
 
I agree, it all just seems too convenient. Commit a horrific crime but then not long after confess all and take part in a reconstruction, where it seems you don't have much clue about how to actually 'reconstruct' what happened? And handily for the local police the 'murderers' aren't Thai either.

Very worrying that the head of police feels comfortable voicing that he wants the whole thing wrapped up quickly. You'd hope the priority would be accuracy rather than speed.
 
Agent Red said:
I agree, it all just seems too convenient. Commit a horrific crime but then not long after confess all and take part in a reconstruction, where it seems you don't have much clue about how to actually 'reconstruct' what happened? And handily for the local police the 'murderers' aren't Thai either.

Very worrying that the head of police feels comfortable voicing that he wants the whole thing wrapped up quickly. You'd hope the priority would be accuracy rather than speed.
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Quite nice of them not to bother asking for lawyers either. Bet the police wish all murder/rape suspects were so cooperative.
 
Wow, how awful for the families this must be, stinks of a cover-up.
 
The alleged killers. Notice presence of high ranking officials looking on approvingly.

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So it was two immigrant bar workers from a country with zero diplomatic clout (even compared to Thailand). Don't worry, tourists, things are back to normal. Like in the scene midway through Jaws where, down at the wharf, the Mayor proudly shows off some random, ordinary sized shark that has been brought in and proclaims it's safe to go back in the water?
 
Terrified Briton flees Thai island after 'mafia' death threat
A friend of murdered British backpacker David Miller flees the Thai island of Koh Tao after claiming local intimidation as police want every man on the 2,000 population island to provide DNA for testing

A petrified British man has fled the Thai island where two British backpackers were murdered last week after claiming the "mafia" was trying to execute him.

Sean McAnna, 25, from Shotts near Glasgow, was a friend of David Miller, the tourist whose body was found last Monday on Koh Tao island along with that of Hannah Witheridge.

Mr McAnna claimed that two Thai men, who he believes may have crucial information about the murders, threatened to kill him in the early hours of Monday morning while he was drinking at a bar on Sairee beach near to where their disfigured bodies were discovered.

He fled, took refuge in a nearby supermarket and was only able to leave when police were called and arrived on the scene at around 5am. They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

With those two men still at large, Mr McAnna spent the day in hiding before fleeing Koh Tao fearing he could be killed if he stayed.

"I need to get off this island," a tearful and visibly nervous Mr McAnna told The Telegraph during an interview conducted inside the back of a taxi before he departed.

"I genuinely thought that was the day I was going to die," Mr McAnna said. "I genuinely thought that this was me dead. That I was gone."

"I phoned my mum, I phoned my sister. I told her I loved her and that I would try and make it home. I said that if this was going to be the last conversation that we had then it was a really sad one to have but she's been great and I love her."

Mr McAnna met Mr Miller last year while both men were living in Leeds. He was the singer and guitarist in a Leeds band called These Fading Polaroids and Mr Miller was an engineering student. Both lived in the Hyde Park area.

Mr McAnna said he recently returned to Koh Tao - where he had previously spent 18 months living and working as a barman - and had planned but failed to meet Mr Miller on the night he and Ms Witheridge were murdered.

Police have yet to make any arrests for the horrific murders and now say they plan to force every man on the 2,000 population island to provide DNA for testing. Locals appear reluctant to discuss the case, apparently fearing reprisals from mafia-style families who are said to control Koh Tao.

Mr McAnna said he believed it was people linked to one such group who threatened to kill him. At around 2.30am he was accosted by two Thai men at Koh Tao's AC Bar, a beachfront nightclub where Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge had been just before they were murdered.

"They just said to me: 'It was you who killed them. You've got two people's deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You're going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang. You will die tonight.'"

"So I just ran. I just left and ran," he said.

A terrified Mr McAnna took refuge in a small supermarket into which the men chased him. They tried to convince him to leave but he refused, fearing he would be murdered.

"They wouldn't have shot me. They would have taken me up into the hills and hung me to make it look like I'd hung myself," he said.

Mr McAnna said he did not know if the men who threatened him were directly involved in his friend's murder. However, he did believe they had key information about the murders and were attempting to make him a "scapegoat" for the killings.

"I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was. They need a scapegoat and they don't want it to be locals. They want it to be a westerner. So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say: 'See, it was him.'"

Mr McAnna posted information about the alleged threats on his Facebook page at around 4am on Monday and issued a desperate plea for help. "Thai mafia are trying to kill me. Please help me," he wrote.

He said he also spoke to Foreign Office officials in London over the telephone. After being taken from the supermarket by Thai police, Mr McAnna said he spent the rest of the night hiding from the men he feared were going to kill him in the jungle.

"I was scared s*******. I was really scared. So I kept moving every thirty minutes in case anybody had seen me. I would move from one part, to the next part in case there was anyone close that had seen me and could send someone."

Mr McAnna rejected the men's claims that had been involved killing his friend and Ms Witheridge. "Of course I had nothing to do with it." Prachum Ruangthong, the police chief responsible for Koh Tao, confirmed that Mr McAnna had been asked to provide DNA samples as part of investigations into the murders but was not considered a suspect.

The police chief denied recieving reports of death threats against Mr McAnna even though he met him on Monday morning and told the British traveller: "I am sensitive about your feelings. You don't worry, ok?"

Two Thai men were questioned about the incident but they were not arrested. The police chief said he would guarantee the Briton's security while he remained on Koh Tao.

After spending much of Monday in hiding, Mr McAnna travelled to the island's port with a group of British reporters at around 2.30pm. He left Koh Tao on a passenger ferry at 3.10pm.

Mr McAnna's friends took to social media to express their concern. "Sean get off that island now," wrote Jordan O'Hara, a friend. "Can't believe what Tao is turning in to. Madness!" wrote Rachel Howard.

On Monday afternoon, Mr McAnna sat near Koh Tao's main pier in blazing sunshine preparing to board a ferry off the island. "I'm getting nervous," he said, as holidaymakers lined up to board the vessel that would take him to safety.

The 25-year-old Scot vowed never to return to an island that markets itself as a paradise for divers and partiers. "I'm done here," he said, adding that he would only feel truly safe once he had flown out of Thailand. "Something could still happen to me in the next 24 hours."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ees-Thai-island-after-mafia-death-threat.html


All very suspicious.
 
Ain't the first time the Thai authorities have used Burmese immigrants in similar situations. Stinks of it being orchestrated. They are as crooked as feck in the police force. When I went there in 2010 my mate showed me around as he's been living there for years. He took me spot some strange bar in Bangkok and as we went in he mentioned to keep an eye out for the fat cat sitting in the big chair up the back with all the Thai birds hanging out of him.

Turns out the cnut is essentially a high up individual from the police force I'm not sure what way ranking works. All the bent coppers were coming in and handing over his cut of their corruption in plain sight. Mental stuff and I really couldn't believe my eyes as to what I was seeing.

Absolutely love the place but it's as crooked and bent as an S hook.
 
Truly sickening, I dont know if any of you have seen the murder pictures but its clear they had nothing but murderous intentions judging by how far they went on the poor girl.
 
ItsEssexRob said:
Truly sickening, I dont know if any of you have seen the murder pictures but its clear they had nothing but murderous intentions judging by how far they went on the poor girl.
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Unfortunately yes. Can't unsee that sort of thing.
 
I've been following this story, I didn't know there was conspiracy stuff. About the accused. But the first thing I thought when they were paraded like this was that it was all dodgy. The whole thing stinks of shite,
 
Two men accused of murdering two British backpackers in Thailand have reportedly retracted their confessions - saying they were "beaten out of them".

Police say Burmese migrants Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, both 21, killed Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on Koh Tao island - claiming they were jealous.

The suspects, who are charged with murder, rape and robbery, appeared before a judge on the neighbouring island of Koh Samui on Saturday.

However, Aung Myo Thant, a Burmese embassy official described as a lawyer, has now formally retracted their confessions, according to the Bangkok Post, which cited Burma's 7Day newspaper.

"They told me that they were on the beach that night drinking and singing songs," he was quoted as saying.

"They said they didn't do it, that the Thai police beat them until they confessed to something they didn't do.

"They're pleading with the Burmese government to look into the case and find out the truth. They were a really pitiful sight. Their bodies had all sorts of bruises."

On Wednesday, the two men claimed they were beaten and threatened with electrocution by police.

Other Burmese migrant workers arrested over the murders say they were subjected to similar treatment.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the claims and said any confession extracted through torture should be inadmissible in court.

The suspects, who are in police custody, could face the death penalty if convicted.

Last week, they wore crash helmets and police vests to protect them from angry locals as they were paraded by officers in a bizarre reconstruction of the crime.

At one point Win was told to play the guitar as part of the reconstruction before acting out the murders of Mr Miller, 24, and Miss Witheridge, 23, on Sairee beach.

He also held a dustpan to represent the garden hoe allegedly used in the killings on 15 September.

Mr Miller, from Jersey, died from drowning and a blow to the head, while Miss Witheridge, from Great Yarmouth, died from head wounds.
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http://news.sky.com/story/1350392/murder-suspects-retract-confessions-report
 
Among other things, I really don't get this reconstruction thing, with the supposed killers, with a dustpan and a freaking guitar. It just seems and looks bizarre.
 
You'd think a police force that corrupt would've learned how to frame people in a vaguely plausible way by now.
 
Yes, they are laughably amateur in all they do, aside the corruption they partake in. Seems like a case of ensuring they remain able to be as corrupt as feck for many years to come by covering up two murders they are either incapable of solving or more likely have no real interest in solving as they are not really what you would call policemen rather the ones who run the show.

The show must go on.

I'll not be visiting Thailand anytime soon.
 
sullydnl said:
Unfortunately yes. Can't unsee that sort of thing.
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My inquisitive nature meant I went and found them - really regret it now. So sick - they were just animals doing that. What they did to the girl... :( Feel so sorry for the family. Like others have said, this is so corrupt and sadly I bet the real killers will never be found.

Were the 'couple' supposedly having an affair? Is that why they were 'together' at the time? Coz I thought I read somewhere the bloke has a girlfriend.
 
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