British gal raped and murdered Samui

[Flashermac]

The Times Online

January 05, 2006

 

Scots tourist denies link to murdered girl

By Jenny Booth

 

 

 

A Scottish backpacker has denied media reports linking him to Katherine Horton, the 21-year-old psychology student raped and drowned on a Thai beach on New Year's Day.

 

Callum Macdonald today used his personal blog to rebut claims - published in Thai newspapers - that Miss Horton's underwear had been found in his bungalow, two doors down from the room the murdered girl was sharing with a university friend, Ruth Adams.

 

Miss Horton, 21, of Cardiff, was attacked on Sunday night as she walked along Lamai beach after speaking to her mother on her mobile phone. Two British holidaymakers have told police that they heard screams and a commotion outside their beach hut shortly after 10pm on Sunday.

 

In his blog, Mr Macdonald writes: "I should also say it's likely the British press will report that the Thai press have printed that Kath's underwear was found in my bungalow. I can categorically say, on record, this is not the case.

 

"Kath's underwear was found in her own bungalow. This is supported by everyone here and the Thai police. My personal opinion is that there was a mix up with the numbers in the Thai press. We were in bungalow 4 and Kath and Ruth were in bungalow 2. I understand the Thai press simply printed that the underwear was found in bungalow 4, they did not suggest it was found in somebody else's bungalow."

 

Mr Macdonald also responded to reports that he had cuts and bruises on his face at the time of Miss Horton's death. In an email to Times Online, he said that he was attacked the night before Miss Horton arrived on Koh Samui, and was treated in hospital the following day, on December 30.

 

"I'd had quite a bit to drink by the end of the night," he wrote. "I came out of the club on my own, I think I was arguing with a Thai guy about something, not sure what. I felt a hard hit to my right cheek, I don't know from what or necessarily from whom."

 

"I made a police report before Kath and Ruth arrived on Samui and I was at hospital on the morning of the 30th, again, before they arrived," he added.

 

Police on Koh Samui are said to be focusing on a report from a security guard that he had seen four local men riding motorcycles in the area around 10pm.

 

"Our investigation is focusing on rape," Lieutenant-Colonel Thanongsak Aksornsom said. He believed that the attackers were local men who may have carried out a gang-rape attack on Miss Horton before throwing her unconscious into the sea.

 

Post-mortem examinations revealed that she suffered internal injuries and had been badly beaten. Initial examinations have recorded drowning as the cause of death.

 

Mr Macdonald, a 23-year-old IT consultant from Edinburgh, said that he and his friend Wes had met Miss Horton on New Year's Eve.

 

"She was a lovely girl, really bubbly and friendly. Wes and I spent a few hours talking to Kath and her friend Ruth before they went to Koh Pah-Ngan for New Year," he writes.

 

"We spent New Year's Day on the beach with them and we all went for dinner that night. We came back from dinner, Kath took her phone from her room and went down the beach to call her mum. We never saw her again."

 

Miss Adams knocked on Mr Macdonald's door at 8:30am to say that Miss Horton still wasn't back, although her shoes and a note had disappeared from outside the bungalow.

 

"We thought she must have come back during the night and then gone into town. We looked for her on the beach and around Lamai village and the surrounding area," writes Mr Macdonald.

 

"By about 4 in the afternoon we decided there was something very wrong and so Ruth and I went to the police station. Around 6 or 7pm the police told me they had found Kath's body. They showed me pictures of her body to confirm it was Kath.

 

"I couldn't believe it. I broke the news to Ruth as gently as I could. She was utterly devastated. Ruth called her parents and I called Kath's brother in England to break the news to the family. It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make. I called a man on the other side of the world and told him his sister had died in Thailand."

 

Mr Macdonald said that holidaymakers were shocked by the news and had lit candles and laid flowers on the beach for her.

 

It is understood that police have taken DNA samples from Mr Macdonald and his friend, as well as from other male tourists and from local men.

 

Today Miss Horton's father, Ian, wept as he laid flowers at the beach where her body was found. Miss Adams stood next to him as he paid tribute to his daughter. "Katherine came to Thailand to dance on a beach, to ride an elephant, to have a vacation before her finals at university," he said.

 

"She was full of confidence and felt immune to the dangers of this world as we have all felt when we were young adults. Tragically, her faith in her fellow man let her down and she has been taken from us forever."

 

He appealed for anyone who knew who was responsible for the death of his daughter to save another life by coming forward.

 

He thanked his son Richard for staying in Cardiff and looking after Katherine's mother Elizabeth, and his other son, Christopher, for travelling to Thailand from his home in Australia.

 

Consular staff at the British Embassy in Thailand are understood to be trying to book flights for the family to return tomorrow evening local time. They hope that Miss Adams, from Chichester, may be able to fly home tonight.

 

 

[MaiLuk]

>>>A waitress, who handed over Horton's mobile phone to police, and claimed she had received it from two foreign couples, later admitted she had found the phone on Lamai beach herself and removed the SIM card. Police said they would continue to question the waitress.<<<

 

The waitress sounds like a prime suspect.

 

The girl was floating in the ocean, no semen no skin under the fingernails. Makes me wonder what DNA evidence they possibly could have.

[kamui]

DNA check in British woman's murder

 

Police have taken DNA samples from 14 suspects in the rape and murder of a 21-year-old British woman whose body was found earlier this week floating dead off Samui Island.

 

Four Thais are reportedly the chief targets of the investigation, but possible suspects included six foreigners and eight Thai nationals rounded up around the Lamai Bay area of Koh Samui, where the body of Katherine Horton of Wales was found floating Monday.

 

"We want to make sure we catch the culprit and not a scapegoat," said Police Lt Gen Achirawit Suphanpaesatch, assistant police commissioner. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra urged authorities on Friday to solve the case.

 

Pol Lt Gen Achirawit said that even with DNA results, expected from the lab soon, it may be difficult to prove guilt of a suspect since very little semen was found in the victim, whose body was dumped in the water for several hours. A second autopsy of Horton's body conducted in Bangkok has proven she was raped.

 

Mr Thaksin urged police to speed up their investigation of Horton's murder, which has once again tarnished Thailand's reputation as a safe tourist destination.

 

Horton arrived in Thailand on Dec 27 and travelled to Koh Samui with a friend to celebrate the New Year. She went missing on New Year's Day after leaving her friend Ruth Adams to walk on the beach while making a mobile phone call to her mother in Cardiff, Wales.

 

The call was interrupted when Horton was attacked. Her mother heard her scream and then the connection was cut off.

 

After first attributing Horton's death to drowning police now say she was raped and beaten before being dumped in the bay.

 

Her parents, Ian and Elizabeth Horton, traveled to Samui Thursday to monitor the investigation into their daughter's brutal murder. "On a personal note I urge those who did this to come forward," said Ian Horton in a statement. "The perpetrator is too cowardly to offer themselves to justice in Thailand. But there is a person here that knows. A person that can assist the police. I urge that person to come forward and speak out. Katherine was my little girl. Please help her father."

 

Horton is the fourth British tourist to be murdered in Thailand over the past five years.

 

British nationals Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 24, were shot dead on September 9, 2004, in Kachanaburi province by Thai Police Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh. Somchai got life imprisonment.

 

British tourist Kirsty Jones was allegedly raped and murdered in Chiang Mai in the year 2000. Her murderer was never caught. - (dpa)

[Zorro]

It seems like this time some govts are taking notice over the increasing violence in Thailand.

 

There was a report on the radio here in Australia last night from the foreign affairs dept warning travellers about safety issues in Thailand and they quoted the latest murder along with a spate of druggings, muggings,and the kidnapping of a Brazilian as evidence of personal safety issues n the LOS.

[limbo]

Poll result in the Nation;

 

Do you think murder of a Welsh university student, Katherine Horton, has made Koh Samui and Thailand dangerous places to visit?

 

Yes.

 

63.44% 59 votes

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

No.

 

36.56% 34 votes

 

Total: 93 votes

[limbo]

Police close in on Horton's alleged murderers: Thaksin

Published on Jan 07 , 2006 The Nation

 

 

 

 

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday that police now have clues to identify who took part in the raping and murder of Welsh tourist Katherine Horton on Koh Samui.

 

 

"A lot of progress has been made and police reported to me that they have got clues and know who did it," Thaksin said.

 

 

"But I told police to do the case with prudence, not rushing to conclude the case."

 

 

Thaksin said the murder had affected tourism and from now on local police would have to assist tourist police in providing safety for foreign tourists.

[Guest]

Dont wish to sound cynical, but he would say that...wouldnt he? Of course i hope they are close to catching them though.

 

One thing for sure.... they are uterly fucked, whoever they are. This has cost LOS a fair few quid in revenue. Have you heard about all the reports in the British media? They are bloody consumed with LOS at the mo, with a large focus on how un-safe LOS has become. Major pisser for the TAT.

[gummigut]

The whole thing stinks.

 

The facts in the media stinks.

 

There are a few things though that seems to be consistent though.

 

The mother heard some dogs barking, a scream, and the phone cutoff.

 

Well, let's say your a mom. Your kid is literally 1/2 way around the world. While you are talking, you hear some dogs barking, a scream, and the phone cuts off.

 

WHAT DO YOU DO???

 

Like the mom didn't have any phone numbers of her friends or doesn't know where she is staying?

 

Stinks stinks stinks.

 

What a terrible situation!

 

<<burp>>

[Guest]

Apparently they know who the killers are now:

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Killers of slain Welsh tourist will be apprehended

 

BANGKOK: -- Investigations into the death of a 21-year-old Welsh woman found dead at Thailand's southern resort of Koh Samui in Surat Thani Province earlier this week has made considerable progress and police now know the identities of the murderers, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Saturday.

 

Mr. Thaksin told journalists that he had ordered Pol. Gen. Chidchai Vanasatidya, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister, to quickly apprehend the culprits who murdered Ms. Katherine Horton, as police now know the identities of the murderers.

 

Denying that he had ordered police to bring in the culprits dead or alive, Mr. Thaksin said he wanted the murderers to surrender themselves to the authorities and face the courts.

 

At the same time he said he did not want to say that the act was committed by locals or foreigners.

 

Ms. Horton, a psychology student from Reading University, Cardiff, the United Kingdom, was attacked near a bungalow where she had spent her New Year's holidays with friends on Lamai Beach on the Samui Island on New Year's night (Jan 1).

 

Her body was found floating in the sea a few kilometers away the next day.

 

Police have said that she was raped, as sperm was found in her body and they are waiting for a DNA comparison with suspects they had questioned.

 

Mr. Thaksin admitted that this shocking crime had caused a negative impact on the country's tourism industry as foreign tourists would be reluctant to visit the country, especially British tourists -- after two of them were murdered within a "short space of time".

 

Meanwhile, Pol. Gen. Chidchai said he was confident that police would be able to apprehend the culprits as Pol. Maj. Gen. Assawin Khwanmuang, Deputy Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, is now handling the case himself.

 

Pol. Gen. Chidchai reiterated that real culprits would be caught and not scapegoats as Pol. Maj. Gen. Assawin had traveled to the area to supervise the investigation himself.

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On a seperate issue regarding the 12 year old Swedish girl, this from the Western Mail;

 

ALL Western tourists who gave blood samples for DNA testing in the search to find Katherine Horton's killer have been told they are free to go home.

 

After three days of checks, Thai police have ruled out the possibility that the Welsh backpacker was killed by a Westerner.

 

Police in the resort said they were also investigating the rape of a 12-year-old Swedish girl by a barman.

 

Callum Macdonald, 23, from Blackhall, Edinburgh, the former boss of an IT company, was one of the last people to see Katherine alive.

 

He said, "Attacks against women here don't seem to be uncommon.

 

"When I was giving a statement at the police station on the table next to me the parents of a Swedish girl were giving evidence about the rape of their 12-year-old daughter by a barman."

 

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Fuck.

[Guest]

Nothing else on the Swedish girl. Hopefully the media have fucked up here.... 12 year old rape would be plastered all over the news, but it isnt. Hopefully its just a fuck up.