two men have confessed to mudering British girl in Thailand

[sarahinphuket]

From the Bangkok Post

"Two fishing trawler crewmen have confessed to the murder of 21 year old Welsh student Katherine Horton on a Koh Samui beach on Jan 2.

Only one confessed to raping HOrton, but investigators told a press conference yesterday that DNA tests confirmed that both men had raped her.

Police said other fishermen told them the two suspects had been bragging about having sex with a foreign woman.

.....

Both men initially denied the charges. But after lengthy interrogation they confessed to the attack, rape and beating of Horton to death.

The suspects reportedly told investigators that they had left their boat (...) late on the night of Jan 1 after a heavy bout of drinking and watching pornographic movies. As they swam to the beach in front of Tapi Bungalow they found Horton alone, talking on the phone."

-

one has confessed to hitting her with a piece of wood before the other one raped her. After the rape, he hit her several times again before dumping her body in the sea.

Further on in the article....

"Pol spokesman Pol Lt-Gen Achirawit Supannapesata said both suspects could face the death sentence if found guilty of rape, premeditated murder and murder."

Its so sad the whole thing reminds me of something similar that happened to a friend of mine on Phi Phi.....she was walking along the beach at night when she was hit across the back of the head with a piece of wood. Fortunately she wasn;t raped but when she was found and taken to hospital, she had broken ribs, wrists, collar bone......

[Twiglett]

according to friend who is a UK journo .. the confession seemed a bit suspect

what is the feeling over there

it is incredibly sad

[sarahinphuket]

twiglett - I'm not sure to be honest. The bit in the article that says "the two men initially denied the charges but after lengthy interrogation they confessed....." made me wonder what sort of interrogation they had been through.

The police took the two men back to Samui to re-enact the crime, but they were met by a large crowd, some of whom tried to attack the suspects, so the police had to call it off.

Another part of the article (which I forgot to post first of all!)
"The two were flown to Bangkok early yesterday to undergo DNA tests at the police department's Institute of Forensic Medicine. Police say the tests confirmed that their DNA matched the sperm found in Horton;s vagina"

sorry tmi

[oliveoil]

wasn't she found in the sea though, would they have had any dna evidence?

Sounds suss to me.

Poor family. And her poor friend. It said in The Times that she felt bad as they had been niggly with each other before she went off to use her phone (one wanted to go Chang Mai and the other didn't or something).

[millie34]

did the police ever find the murderer/s of kirsty jones (i think her name was). she was murdered in a £1 a night backpackers some years ago.

[JoolsToo]

I'd have thought there would still be DNA on/in! her.

One can only hope the confession is all legit and above board. Are the police sus in that part of the world?

[tiredemma]

im a bit suspicous about this "confession".

the last thing that the thai govt need after the tsunami is tourists avoiding the place because of rapes.

all a bit quick in my opinion.

[millie34]

i agree tiredemma. i too am a bit suspicious as it all happened very quick. if they are innocent and the police are just trying to frame anyone its awful. i know the thai PM wanted this case solved asap.
on the other hand, if they are guilty then well done to the thai police for working so quickly. they didnt do a good job on the kirsty jones case. her killer is still at large.

[sarahinphuket]

some police are definitely suss out here! however i think that they may well have the right people for this one. Certainly when my friend was attacked on Phi Phi back in 2000, the police bent over backwards to try and find her attacker - because she was a foreigner. they sent helicopters and police launches over and loads of policemen - and they did find him pretty quickly.

In the Kirsty Jones case they completely messed it up, from what I remember the press were allowed into the crime scene before forensic evidence had been taken.

You have to remember though that this is a developing country and whilst that in itself is not necessarily an excuse, I do think that the police do the best that they can, given the resources that they have.

[BudaBabe]

Hi

I did wonder about the DNA too - not that it would still be there but I thought it took longer to do DNA tests? Or have I been watching too much TV?

I heard on the news that the police knew 7 boats had gone out to sea fishing the morning after and they radioed them back in. 6 came back. So they set up a false "fish buyer" to entice the other back in and that's how they got them.

I have to say I never felt unsafe in Thailand when we lived there but that was 16 years ago. You NEVER heard of anything like this happening.