Tourist’s funeral held in private
British backpacker farewelled at ceremony on Gold Coast
A PRIVATE funeral for slain British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung has been held on the Gold Coast.
Ms Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was stabbed to death at Shelley’s Backpackers, south of Townsville, last month.
She was allegedly killed by French national Smail Ayad.
Despite reports the attacker shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during the stabbing, police dismissed terrorism fears and said Ayad had allegedly developed a romantic obsession with Ms Ayliffe-Chung.
Ms Ayliffe-Chung’s mother Rosie, who flew out from England, attended the funeral at Nerang with Mia’s friends including her workmates from the The Bedroom nightclub in Surfers Paradise.
The service was held in a chapel at the Coolibah Downs private estate. Police set up a roadblock to prevent media access.
Rosie Ayliffe, who complained about the “misrepresentation” of her daughter’s death as an act of terrorism by an Islamic fundamentalist, had said the funeral would be a multi-faith ceremony, with a reading from the Qur’an, along with a Jewish text or song, a Sikh reading and a Buddhist performance.
In a blog for Britain’s The Independent newspaper hours before the funeral, Ms Ayliffe said she believed she needed to go on, “first and foremost for Mia’s sake and for the sake of others around me, particularly for my lovely partner Stewart who deserves so much more than this’’.
“He’s already carried five coffins, bless him, and one was his own brother,’’ she wrote.
“I also believe Mia is with me on this journey.
“She asked me to come over in our last phone call and I agreed I would, and now here I am.
“I believe we will hold each other again one day, and that the many who are grieving for her now will be with her again one day too.
“We’ll meet her again one day, sooner or later, in our own bright places full of love.”