Grieving parents: We’ll never find out how our daughter died
Foreign Office criticised over lack of aid and advice for families of tourists killed in Thailand
THE parents of a young British woman who died in Thailand have said they will never know what happened to her because the Foreign Office ignored them for weeks.
Christina Annesley, 23, a Leeds University history graduate, died on Koh Tao island three years ago. Her death is still unexplained.
Her parents, Margaret and Boyne, say her body was left in a temple for days before a post-mortem examina- tion was performed, which means its results could not be accepted by a UK coroner. They say a lack of contact with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) left them unaware that they could have brought Christina’s body back to the UK for tests.
The claims follow last December’s revelation that staffing in Britain’s embassies in America and Asia was cut to pay for 50 extra diplomats needed to bolster representation within the EU.
The Annesleys, and other families of young people who have died abroad in unexplained circumstances, are to deliver a petition to Theresa May next Tuesday asking for better consular as- sistance in such circumstances.
They include the sister of Hannah Witheridge, who was raped and killed on Koh Tao in 2014, and the mother of Kirsty Jones, who was raped and killed in Chiang Mai in 2000. They are calling for the provision of proper translation services and support, and for warnings to be issued about countries where numbers of young Britons have died.
A debate takes place in parliament today on how the Foreign Office can improve help for families with relatives who have died abroad. It was secured by Hannah Bardell MP, whose constituent, Kirsty Maxwell, was another victim who died abroad.
Ms Annesley’s post-mortem in Thailand suggested she died due to a mix of alcohol and prescription medication. However, her parents suspect foul play and have concerns about the police investigation after meeting other parents whose children have died in suspicious circumstances on the same island.
Mrs Annesley, 55, and Mr Annesley, 63, claim the Foreign Office failed to tell them that their daughter’s body could have been brought back to Britain at once, and left them to their own devices even though they were “grief stricken and desperate for advice”.
They told The Daily Telegraph: “When we learned of our daughter’s death we were given a contact name in the FCO who we initially contacted for advice. We tried to contact this person over a three-week period with no response, until we were finally advised this contact was in the middle of being transferred, so we were given an alternative contact.”
The Annesleys said they only learned about having a post-mortem con- ducted in the UK from family and friends, but “by that time it was too late as the post-mortem had already been carried out and her body embalmed”.
Thai police did not interview the last person to see Ms Annesley alive, even though they were identified on CCTV, and they refused to let the Annesleys see the footage. They say they will “never know how she died as all evidence had been lost, damaged or contaminated”.
Pat Harrington, who organised the petition after her son’s death on Koh Tao in unexplained circumstances, told The Telegraph: “I want the Government to look into all the suspicious deaths abroad, particularly Koh Tao. “I started to see a pattern of suspicious deaths on the island … and the Thais have put them all down to accidents and suicides, which are all totally wrong.”
The Foreign Office did not respond to requests for comment.