Aggregated News

Untitled Document

The evidence comprised little more than a data table, printed on a single sheet of paper. To Jane Taupin, it didn’t seem to make sense.

“[It] had no guidance for the reader of how to interpret the table,”she said.

“What’s more, it contained handwritten notes and amendments. That is non-compliant with any international standard that I know of.”

Ms Taupin, one of the world’s foremost experts on DNA profiling, had been expecting to raise this and several other serious concerns about the handling of DNA evidence during the Koh Tao murder trial last year.

But despite flying out from Australia to Thailand to attend the hearing, she was never called to the witness stand.

Instead, the defence team relied on the testimony of Pornthip Rojanasunand, head of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, to challenge the DNA findings.

The three judges at the Samui Provincial Court found Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun guilty of the murder of British tourists David Miller and Hannah Witheridge, sentencing the pair to death. The ruling, delivered on Christmas Eve, relied heavily...