Hundreds of residents of a Thai resort island angrily protested the killing of a British tourist, with some waving wooden clubs as police escorted the two Thai suspects back to the scene of the crime yesterday.
Besieged by protesters, police were forced to cancel a planned re-enactment of the murder of Katherine Horton, a 21-year-old student from Wales, whose battered body was found the morning of Jan. 2 by a jet skier in the Gulf of Thailand.
Two Thai fisherman confessed on Monday to killing Horton, who was vacationing on the island of Koh Samui, and DNA tests indicate the suspects raped the victim, police said.
Under questioning, the fishermen told police they spotted Horton while she was walking alone on a beach talking on her cellphone.
One of the men, Bualoi Posit, 23, told police he grabbed Horton's arms, while the other man, Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, confessed to hitting her several times with a stick before they raped her and then threw her body into the sea, police said.
Shocking brutality
The brutality of the crime has shocked this Southeast Asian nation, which makes billions of dollars a year from its tourism industry.
National police spokesman Lieutenant-General Ayiravid Subarnbhesaj said that residents and shop owners on Koh Samui "hate the suspects for causing severe damage to the reputation of the country."
Police had initially planned to re-enact the crime on Monday but were thwarted by a crowd of hundreds.
Some protesters broke through a police barrier and began punching the suspects, said Ayiravid. A similar scene greeted police yesterday morning.
"We had to cancel plans to re-enact the crime for fear of violence," he said.
Police want to stage a run-through of the crime to back up the suspects' confessions.
Police said that despite the DNA findings, Wichai denies having raped the victim.
If convicted of murder, the two men could face the death penalty.
Damage to tourism
The arrests on Monday followed an unusual public appeal last week by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to find the killers, saying that the slaying hurt the country's image and could damage its tourism industry, already suffering a downturn from last year's tsunami and the bird flu scare.
"I feel somewhat relieved that police have made the arrests," Thaksin told reporters yesterday, calling for stern punishment if the men are found guilty.
"I hope the family [of Horton] feels a little better, because we are doing our best," Thaksin said.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS