The sister of murdered
backpacker Hannah Witheridge has revealed Thai officials callously told her
parents to ‘just make another one’ after their daughter was raped and killed
while on holiday.
In a scathing attack on
Thailand and its officials, Laura Witheridge also claimed many Thais ‘hate
westerners and they have little to no regard for human life’.
This was evidenced, she
said, in some of the shockingly callous comments made by judges and court
officials to her family during her sister’s killers’ trial last year.
The Mail of UK reports that in December, Burmese
migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were sentenced to death for the killing
of Ms Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, 24.
The British pair were
found beaten to death on a beach on Koh Tao in December 2014, while Ms
Witheridge, from Norfolk, had been raped.
In a Facebook post shared widely, Laura Witheridge labelled Thai officials
‘corrupt’ and claimed Thailand was not the beautiful and safe travel
destination many believed it to be.
Among the questions court
officials put to her family during the trial were: ‘Why are you here?’ and ‘why
do you care?’
Shockingly, other
individuals told the grieving family: ‘She is dead already; why are you so
bothered? Just go home and make another one’ and ‘why are you making such
a fuss, she will be back in 30 days as something else, she may have better luck
next time.’
This, Laura claimed, was
evidence of their ‘little regard for human life’.
She wrote: ‘Since Hannah
was taken from us, I am continually asked whether I will warn the world about
the dangers of Thailand.
‘Countless times, I have
logged in to Facebook and seen statuses made by people who know both Hannah and
I, who have gone out [to Thailand] anyway.
‘They think it won’t
happen to them. Well, guess what? Neither did we. No one is immune.
‘Many Thai’s hate
Westerners and they have little to no regard for human life. I don’t say this
lightly, or without reason. Let me share a few facts with you about this
‘beautiful’ place you speak of.
‘Many of the Thai people
have no regard for human life. My evidence for this statement: firstly, some
quotes of the things said to my bereaved, heartbroken family by the judges and
court officials at the trial of the two Burmese migrants.’
She went on to reveal that
she had received death threats ‘from Thai people’ since her sister’s death and
they had ‘defaced photographs of me saying that the killers had only done “half
the job”.’
Source: The Punch
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