British tourists’ murder: Verdict due on December 24

A Burmese man on trial for raping British tourist Hannah Witheridge and murdering her and fellow Briton David Miller in Thailand has said he was beaten by Thai police.

The family of British murder victim David Miller, who died on the Thai island of Koh Tao a year ago, have intervened in the trial to try and prove their son’s phone was in the possession of one of the accused.

Both defendants initially confessed to the killings but later retracted these statements, saying they had been tortured.

Human rights groups have become involved in the trial, noting that migrant workers from Myanmar, of whom there are about 2.5 million in Thailand, have previously been wrongly accused of crimes by Thai police. This contradicts the testimony of numerous police officers. “After that, I signed many documents but I didn’t know what they said”, reported the Eastern Daily Press.

Wei Phyo, 22, has not denied finding a phone on the beach on the night of the murders.

Lawyers for the accused have made police incompetence and mishandling of evidence central to their defence.

Ko Wai Phyo told the court he was stripped almost naked, punched and kicked by investigating officers, and threatened with death if he did not confess. “They also said they would take me into another room and electrocute me”.

In earlier testimony Zaw Lin had told the court he thought the police officers were going to suffocate him as they repeatedly put plastic bags over his head and tightened them around his face and neck until he collapsed.

Another key aspect of the case is DNA, prosecutors say, links both men to Ms Witheridge. He said he took it home but couldn’t unlock it.

“Police told me that as I had no passport I had no rights, and they told me it had happened before, where Burmese migrant workers were burned in a circle of blazing tyres on Koh Tao island”, Wei Phyo said in court. The defendant said he picked it up from the beach near a restaurant.

“My friend smashed up the phone and threw it into the undergrowth behind our hut”.

It confirmed that the security settings of the retrieved phone were those of Mr Miller’s device.

The judges’ decision to announce the verdict on December 24 – Thailand is a Buddhist country where Christmas is not celebrated on the official calendar – will only add to their suffering by casting a heavy pall across the second holiday season without their children.

To complicate matters further police originally said there was no DNA recovered from the murder weapon, a garden hoe, it was retested to find Ms Witheridge’s DNA and an incomplete male profile found – and that couldn’t be matched to either Phyo or Lin.