Koh Samui murder

Thai murderers sentenced to death

Wednesday Jan 18 16:26 AEDT

Two fisherman have been condemned to death for the rape and murder of a British backpacker in Thailand - a crime that jolted the post-tsunami tourism industry, enraged the prime minister and triggered the swiftest of trials.

The verdict was handed down just 17 days after the slaying.

Bualoi Posit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, are to be executed for the attack on 21-year-old student Katherine Horton on Koh Samui, a popular resort island.

The two men pleaded guilty in a Surat Thani court last week to raping Horton, from Cardiff, as she walked on a beach on the evening of New Year's Day.

They killed her and dumped her body in the waters of the Gulf of Thailand.

The court found that Horton was attacked by the men as she spoke to her mother, Elizabeth, on her mobile phone.

Her mother heard a scream before the line went dead.

Her daughter's battered body was found floating in Lamai Bay the following day by a jet skier.

Immediately after the murder, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made an unusual public appeal for the killers to receive the "hardest punishment" possible, saying the slaying hurt the country's image and could damage tourism.

Horton had said she did not want to see her daughter's killers given the death penalty.

She told the News of the World in London that the men should instead spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

The defendants have one month to appeal.

The two men were arrested on January 9 and confessed to the crime.

A trial was held on Friday.

Defence lawyers presented no witnesses during the one-day trial, which was fast-tracked through the court system because of international attention surrounding the case.

The fishermen have issued no public statements of remorse.

Under interrogation prior to the trial, the fishermen allegedly told police they had been drinking and watching pornographic movies on their boat before swimming to shore, where they spotted Horton while she was walking alone on a beach talking on her mobile phone.

Horton told police her daughter called her in Wales, and that she heard her daughter scream before the line went dead.

Bualoi allegedly told police he grabbed Horton's arms, while Wichai allegedly admitted to hitting her several times with a stick before they raped her and then threw her body into the sea.

Prosecutors called eight witnesses during the trial. They included police investigators and a fisherman, Sama-ae Nukhong, who worked on the boat with the defendants.

He testified that Wichai and Bualoi told him that they had raped and killed a Western woman.

DNA tests show that semen found on her body belonged to the two suspects, police have said.

Although a murder charge carries a maximum sentence of death, Thai courts usually reduce such sentences to life imprisonment or less in cases where defendants plead guilty.

┬йAAP 2006