http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34217544DNA from a garden hoe allegedly used to kill two British tourists on a Thai island does not match samples taken from two men accused of the killings, a court in the country has heard.
Forensic expert Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand also criticised a failure to analyse blood found at the scene.
Police say DNA on the victims' bodies matches that of the accused.
But officers have already testified that they failed to take DNA samples from the alleged murder weapon, examining fingerprints instead.
Dr Rojanasunand, who heads a forensic unit run by the Ministry of Justice, said she had subsequently extracted two samples of DNA from the alleged weapon.
Both were from males, but neither matched the defendants, she told the court. Anyone holding the hoe for more than 15 seconds would have left DNA, she added.
Dr Rojanasunand also questioned a decision to move Miss Witheridge's body from where she was killed - potentially destroying other evidence.
There was intense international pressure on Thailand to find the perpetrators given these were a particularly gruesome murders. A couple of young guys from Myanmar took part of the pressure off to consider possible Thai suspects. Any court here which relies on confessions from young foreigners who presumably had no legal representation at the time is spending too much time in cloud cuckoo land. The collection of DNA evidence was so bungled it resembles a scene from Fawlty Towers. I can understand young guys raping a young girl, the more so if she is injured and unable to fend them off. But how many would also then rape them anally? Of course, it's possible - but how likely? Use of a victim's cell[phone means precisely nothing. I do not know what was said in evidence, but he could have found it and decided to keep it.
And how many more times do we have to learn of powerful Thai families not being investigated in respect of crimes? The former head of the Tourist Authority remains at large despite it having been proved in a United States court that bribes of US$1.8 million were paid into various accounts in the names of herself and her daughter. Her US accomplices were sent to jail - and all this happened almost 7years ago.
http://variety.com/2015/film/asia/jutha ... 201559001/At the Greens trial, the FBI presented large amounts of evidence including photocopies of checks showing that the Greens had paid money to Siriwan and her daughter Jittisopa in accounts in the UK, Jersey and Singapore.
Despite sending representatives to attend the trial of the Greens and evidence supplied by the U.S. investigators, the Thai authorities appeared for several years to show no interest in pursuing a case against Siriwan.
That lack of urgency continues.
And the son of the Red Bull heir remains at large and without even having pled to charges that he was speeding at almost 200 kph on Sukhumvit, under the influence of drugs and alcohol when in 2012 he mowed down and killed a traffic policeman. He has conveniently been out of Thailand whenever called to court.
That report was from the Bangkok Post on 26 May last year and still he is a no show. Not surprisingly the statute of limitations on the speeding charge expired a year after the event as prosecutors and lawyers were wrangling over requests from the accused for additional witnesses to be interviewed. Presumably the other charges will be mysteriously dropped in due course. In the meantime, 10 police officers and investigators on the original case were reprimanded and moved to other positions! The murdered traffic policeman's widow was paid US$97,000 after signing a settlement in which she agreed not to bring a civil case. That was far less than the value of the Ferrari he was driving! Vorayuth's father is estimated to be worth Bt. 340 billion.Red Bull heir, Vorayudh "Boss" Yoovidhaya failed to meet with proscutors Wednesday to answer charges in connection with a deadly hit-and-run incident in 2012. He will be given one more "final" chance.
"If the suspect fails to appear at the next meeting without proper cause he will face arrest," he said, adding that the suspect's lawyers can lodge a petition seeking a postponement, but the request must be based on proper reasons and backed by solid proof.
He said the prosecution expects the next meeting to take place within 30 days. Police will need 15-20 days to issue a new summons and the suspect will be given 10-15 days to prepare, he added.
According to Mr Sutthi, chief of the Department of Southern Bangkok Criminal Litigation, if the suspect fails to appear without a proper reason, it will be evident he is stalling the case, which justifies issuing an arrest warrant.
He said that in the criminal process, a suspect must be brought before the court if he is not detained in jail.
A police source familiar with the case said Wednesday that once an arrest warrant is issued, the Immigration Bureau will be notified and asked to make an arrest if the suspect passes through any checkpoints.
"So far there's no need to ask Interpol to track down the suspect because the police can still contact his lawyer. So it's unlikely that he will flee," said the source."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/lea ... ow-–-again