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Thailand tourist murders: Lawyer for defendents accuse police of torturing and

During the trial, the defence mostly focused on the problems of using unprofessional translators to interrogate the two defendants, and their ethnic biases against the accused.

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Mr Hall said: “They were told that if they did not confess they would simply disappear – they would be set on fire or their limbs would be cut off and sunk at sea so nobody would ever find them”.

Wei Phyo told the trial: “The police asked if that was me in the picture and I said no. I was wearing a black top and long pants that night, as seen in earlier CCTV footage, and the person they were pointing to wasn’t me and was wearing white shorts”.

The killings raised questions about the safety of tourists in Thailand, the competence of its police force and its treatment of migrant workers.

During the trial, which began in July, defence lawyers complained of a patchy police investigation marred by disputed forensics.The trial ended this weekend with the men alleging they were tortured and sexually assaulted to make false confessions.

The two Burmese men were only arrested two weeks after the murder after Thai police had initially focused on possible suspects among the Western tourist community and local islanders. The trial in Koh Samui is drawing to a close, but the verdict could take another three months.

The Met refused to hand over a report they had compiled on the police investigation and the two accused men lost a high court challenge in August that sought access to the report.

With their confessions now retracted, the key piece of the prosecution case against the two men is that their DNA was found on the body of Ms Witheridge, who had allegedly been raped.

But they said that they went home after drinking beer and wine and playing guitar with a friend and had no involvement in the murders. But in the final hours of testimony the prosecution finally received official confirmation from the United Kingdom phone company that it was indeed his, via the Thai embassy in London, at the instigation of the Miller family who had sourced the number themselves.

The defence and prosecution have been given until 26 October to deliver their written closing statements.

British authorities are barred from providing any assistance to investigators in a potential death penalty case overseas because of the United Kingdom opposition to capital punishment.

The pair’s bodies were found on September 14 previous year on the resort island of Koh Tao.

It confirmed that the security settings of the retrieved phone were those of Mr Miller’s device.

Wei Phyo admitted during his testimony to finding a phone on the beach on the night the two British holidaymakers were killed.

He told the court: “The next day we heard about the murders and we were anxious it might be related to someone involved in the murders”. When he heard about the murder the next morning, he was afraid he would get into trouble, so he smashed the phone, put it in a plastic bag and threw it into the undergrowth behind his room.

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The verdict will be given on 24 December.

David Miller