CONVICTED KILLERS’ BID FOR FREEDOM FRESH HEARTACHE FOR BACKPACKER MURDER FAMILIES
Pair say ‘flawed’ evidence was used to link them to slayings
THE families of two British backpackers bludgeoned to death in Thailand are facing fresh agony after their killers demanded a review of the case.
Burmese bar workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, both 29, were sentenced to death for killing David Miller, 24, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, in 2014.
Now prison letters seen by the Mirror show the pair still maintain their innocence 10 years after the brutal murders on Koh Tao island.
In one letter to his legal team, Zaw Lin wrote: “I have been in prison [for] almost 10 years for nothing, it’s unbelievable...
“Could you please retrial again my case? I’ve never seen the people who died on the beach at Koh Tao.”
The killers have always said that they were fitted up, and they accused Thai detectives of carrying out a “botched” probe.
The Mirror can reveal they have been visited by a delegation of solicitors in prison, including a British justice campaigner.
The news will heap fresh agony on Hannah and David’s families, who have suffered a decade of misery over the murders.
ACTIVISTS
David’s family have previously criticised online activists supporting the killers.
But in prison letters sent from Thailand’s notorious Bang Kwang jail – known as the Bangkok Hilton – Zaw Lin said: “I want to get out as I am innocent.”
In another letter, he added: “I will be 29 this month. It’s so sad to know that I am wasting my young life away for nothing. I think I will get out of prison in a few more years... as I have already been in prison a long time.
“They should set me free now. I am sad to think I wasted my young life in prison for nothing.”
David, from St Helier, Jersey, and Hannah, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, had travelled separately to Thailand and met during their trip.
David was making his way around the country after completing his undergraduate degree in civil and structural engineering at the University of Leeds.
He was due to start a master’s degree and was backpacking with a friend after completing a sixweek work placement in Australia.
Hannah had a first-class degree from the University of East Anglia
I want to get out, I am innocent.. I have been in prison for a long time ZAW LIN IN LETTERS FROM PRISON TO HIS LEGAL TEAM
and was working towards a masters degree in speech and language therapy in Essex. A year after her murder, her family said: “She would have gone on to make a significant difference.
“The world is a less vibrant and much less beautiful place without Hannah in it.”
David and Hannah were last seen at the AC Bar with friends before leaving together after 1am on September 15, 2014.
Their bodies were discovered on Sairee Beach, near their hotel, at around 4.30am by a beach cleaner. Hannah had been bludgeoned in the head, while David had suffered head injuries and drowned.
The murders turned the spotlight on Koh Tao, which is popular with tourists but has earned the moniker “Death Island” following a spate of fatal attacks.
Zaw Lin and Zaw Tun were arrested and confessed but later retracted their statements, saying they had been tortured.
Prosecutors said DNA from cigarette butts linked them to the murder of David and the rape and murder of Hannah.
However, their trial in Koh Samui
heard that a garden hoe believed to have been used to beat the backpackers carried the DNA of two different men. Campaigners believe they were set up by Thai authorities who were desperate to preserve the country’s image for tourists.
In a letter from prison, Zaw Lin claimed that forensic evidence linking him to the hoe was flawed.
He said: “The DNA they found out is probably from cigarettes and not from the death bodies [sic].
“They didn’t actually have any other concrete evidence to convict and give me [the] death sentence.”
The Burmese migrants were told they would be executed by lethal injection in 2015. But their death penalties were commuted in 2020 thanks to a royal pardon and they were told they would serve life sentences instead.
At the time, David’s family thanked the Thai authorities for sparing their lives but said they hoped the pair would spend a “very long time in jail where they cannot harm other families”.
But in broken English – which he has learned in jail – Zaw Lin has now said: “Amnesty is for all who stay with good behaviour in prison.
“I think just [a] few people were released with the amnesties over the years... and go home. The rest never saw the amnesties which were delivered between 2020 and 2023. I hope the next amnesties won’t be like that as the Government has changed.”
Hannah and David’s families travelled to Thailand for the trial in 2015 and heard the harrowing evidence.
During a bizarre police probe, the two killers had to stage a reconstruction of the crime. The pair wore crash helmets, police vests and handcuffs as they showed how they murdered Hannah and David with the hoe.
In January this year, the killers’ legal team contacted Thai authorities to demand “clarity” on efforts to have their sentences reduced. But they were told the release dates would not be changed.
Campaigners say that the pair should be acquitted because the crime scene was contaminated and the forensic methodology was “flawed”. Andy Hall, international affairs adviser for their legal defence team, confirmed that lawyers and translators recently visited the pair in jail to “respond to their requests for clarity in their sentence reduction”.
Mr Hall, originally from Peterborough, Cambs, said: “Any further support regarding appeals against their convictions could only be explored if and when new and credible witnesses or evidence came to light or was passed to them, at which stage the legal defence team remains ready to consider such evidence and respond accordingly.”