Tourists murdered on Koh Tao

[HHTel]

National police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang is adamant that British officials monitoring the Koh Tao murder investigation will not be able to interfere with the Thai judicial process.
"Allowing the UK team to conduct an investigation is tantamount to a breach of our sovereignty," Pol Gen Somyot.

So the PM goes public allowing help from Scotland Yard then within hours the police chief is saying 'No way!' No love lost between the MIB and the army!

[HHTel]

And now for today's news:

Bangkok Post 19 Oct 2014 at 06.00
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has denied media reports that he will allow British police to participate in the investigation into the murder of two UK tourists on Koh Tao last month.

What a joke!

[Khundon1975]

Please correct me if I'm wrong here..but a few years ago when for weeks after poor Toby's untimely death the HH MiB repeated told the press they the case was still no nearer to being solved & were doing all they could.
Later on word got passed down here that the team of UK CID that were coming to BKK to show the capital's dectectives 'western ideas' in crime-solving were going to be sent straight to HH to 'assist' solving Toby's case before their work up in BKK...well would you believe it..? Within 2-3 days of this announcment the local MiB had cracked the case..!
One kinda hopes with the threat of 'outsiders' coming to the island that the same may happen again...??

usual suspect

I was drinking with Toby (the one and only bar I frequented back in those days) a couple of days before I went back to the UK for a visit. He was telling me the problems he had been having with his wife, gambling losses and the like. He was killed a couple of days later.

He and his family were very well off and I seem to remember that it was his family in the UK who hired a private detective (an ex UK cop I believe) who went to Thailand to try to get the police to work harder on Toby's case.

As you say, lo and behold, the BIB had arrested his wife and 3 other members of his family.

[HHTel]

And his wife has been released and is now free!

[kendo]

Its all over the main stream media here about the British detectives flying out to observe the Thai Police investigation .I wonder how long it will take for them to go through the motions of the case and to test the DNA back here on British soil.

Kendo.

[richard]

Doubt they'll more than just observers. Political moves from all sides to convince everybody that all is in order and then they will calm it all down and go about their political business with a pocketful of brownie points to get additional votes and slaps on the back

[buksida]

Burmese men accused of killing Britons in Thailand withdraw confessions
Two Burmese men accused of killing the British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on a Thai holiday island have retracted their confessions, according to their lawyers, adding further confusion to an investigation that has attracted widespread criticism.

The retractions come amid growing diplomatic concern that the two accused may have been abused during interrogation. Thailand’s human rights commission said it would launch an inquiry into allegations of police torture.

The bodies of Witheridge, 23, and Miller, 24, were discovered on 15 September by cleaners on a beach on Koh Tao, an island in the south of Thailand famous for its diving. Postmortem examinations showed both suffered severe head wounds and Witheridge was raped.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/o ... onfessions

[hhfarang]

"Koh Tao murders: ‘Thai police threatened to burn my son alive’"

https://www.dvb.no/news/koh-tao-murders ... amui/45369

[oakdale160]

Nothing done locally will change this sort of behaviour, but a relentless campaign by the tabloid press telling people that Thai is dangerous and tourists should not come here is likely to scare the rulers.

[dtaai-maai]

Nothing done locally will change this sort of behaviour, but a relentless campaign by the tabloid press telling people that Thai is dangerous and tourists should not come here is likely to scare the rulers.

Well, yes, assuming it's all true.

While I have little doubt that these confessions would count for nothing in a western court because of the way they were obtained, and while I have no doubt at all that some standards, at least, must be imposed on the Thai police, I need more than a mother saying "My son would never do such a thing" or a father saying "He told me they'd kill him if he didn't confess to something they'd kill him for" before accepting it as the Gospel truth. Particularly as these claims seem to be emerging piecemeal.

Perspective's a funny old thing; if such claims had been made by the families of IRA suspects 40 years ago (like the Birmingham 6 for example), they'd have been dismissed out of hand.

A light sprinkling of salt is not unhealthy.

[richard]

The backpacking fraternity that make up the majority of island beach party events seem unfazed by the whole thing and dismiss it as just another isolated event that can happen anywhere. Several of my daughters friends who backpack all over the globe will only worry about frequenting a place if the rules (booze, bonfires, drugs and sex) are tightened up. Oh to be young and carefree again

[Bristolian]

^^Ah yes, the young are always immortal and I'm not sure the last time I felt that way but it was a long time ago if we use years to count.

Unfortunately the victims were also young and immortal until the 15th September and if their peers still feel it will only ever happen to someone else they may be sadly mistaken, until this case is cleared to the satisfaction of the law and people who believe in it.

What is encouraging to me, is that the Thai social media, mostly consisting of this young immortal group, have taken this case to heart and are no longer willing to accept the facts as presented. They see that there is a distinct possibility that the local police were paid off and consequently did a pi*s poor job in their investigation, preemptive claims of success, beating all possible timescales to get DNA results on the currently accused, not taking DNA of island leaders, not checking carefully the alibi and video footage of a young student from Bangkok (even on my worst day I could have produced better, with less flaws and less shadow and lighting in inconsistencies).

The only proof that is needed is verified DNA by an independent authority and sufficient proof that these DNA samples were not contaminated or switched. Can't be so hard....can it?

The British police have been running their own investigations before visiting Thailand. They will for sure have DNA samples from their own autopsies and have spoken with the friends and other Brits who returned from the island.

My hope, for the respect of Thailand, is that they can verify that the RTP have done their job and captured the correct men. We can not expect an immediate statement from the British police. They are not in this for the media coverage. A report will be made in due course and a statement made. But, they wouldn't be here if they didn't have serious doubts.

[margaretcarnes]

Doubt they'll more than just observers. Political moves from all sides to convince everybody that all is in order and then they will calm it all down and go about their political business with a pocketful of brownie points to get additional votes and slaps on the back

I don't think the intent is to be any more than just that - observers. Maybe just to try to assure Brits - and the families of the deceased - that something is being seen to be done. As you say Richard - 'calm it all down.'
No expat is going to be fooled by the tactics, and few families of expat victims have enough hard cash needed to progress their investigtions beyond the basics. Khundon mentions Tobys' case - maybe an exception because his family had the resources to pursue the case. But sadly it still didn't result in what our Western heads would call justice, and neither will the KhoTao case IMO whatever UK involvement there is.

[PeteC]

Didn't I read that there were some on the island before the official delegation got there....and in plain clothes? If so I would bet they have DNA from local people by now from cigarettes, drinking glasses etc. Sit at a few bars, act like a tourist, and pick up what you can. They're certainly not going to tell the MIB what they're doing, or even that they're there. Pete

[richard]

Pete

I've seen it on the movies but in real life? Dunno