Nine tourists raped in Thailand

Nine British tourists have reported they have been raped in Thailand since the beginning of last year, the British Embassy in Bangkok said today.

The figures were released on the first anniversary of the death of British backpacker Kirsty Jones.

Police in Thailand are still hunting for the killer of 23-year-old Miss Jones, who was raped and strangled.

Her body was found in her £1-a-night room at the Aree guesthouse in the tourist town of Chiang Mai, 420 miles north of Bangkok.

In Thailand, the British Embassy says that three British women were raped in Bangkok, while four were attacked on remote islands, including two women who were assaulted on Koh Phi Phi, one on Koh Samui and one on Koh Lanpa.

Miss Jones was one of two women raped in the popular city of Chiang Mai.

A British Embassy spokesman confirmed the sex attack statistics on British backpackers but stressed Thailand was still a safe country to visit.

He said: ‘‘We would encourage people to look at the Foreign Office travel advice which gives updated information for travellers visiting Thailand.

‘‘Women travellers should be aware there have been a number of reported incidents over the past year and a half.

‘‘There is a very large and growing tourist market, particularly for single women.

‘‘We would also point out that Thailand remains a very safe country to travel. The number of reported rapes is less than in the UK.

‘‘Of course these incidents are unfortunate but the numbers are low compared to the rest of the world.’’

Miss Jones, a Liverpool University student, from Tredomen, near Brecon, had been backpacking in the country for three months en route to Australia as part of a gap-year trip to south-east Asia.

To mark the first anniversary of her death, Miss Jones’s mother, Sue Jones, released a statement on behalf of herself, her husband Glyn and their son Gareth.

In a moving tribute, the family said they missed Kirsty every day and said the hunt for her killer should go on.

They said: ‘‘One day we hope to see justice done, for the safety of other backpackers, but most importantly for Kirsty.

‘‘Someone somewhere should pay the price for robbing us and Kirsty of what should have been a wonderful, happy life.’’

Two days after the murder police arrested Andy Gill, the British owner of the guesthouse who had discovered the body.

Mr Gill, now 33, a former ski-instructor from Lewisham, south London, was initially charged with passport irregularities as his visa had expired two years earlier.

Police then charged him with conspiracy to rape and with the murder of Miss Jones.

But on November 30 last year all charges against him were dropped.

Mr Gill, who had lived in Thailand for 11 years, was last heard of working as a baggage handler at Heathrow airport, though he is known to be keen to return to Thailand where he has a wife and young son.

Although the British Embassy in Bangkok is reluctant to criticise the police investigation, a diplomatic source in Bangkok has said it was mishandled from the start.

The first blunder came when officers failed to seal off the murder scene and allowed a Thai TV crew into Miss Jones’s room before forensic experts had even arrived.

They then caused her family back in Wales great distress when a detective suggested their daughter had been accidentally strangled during consensual sex. Police later said the case was still being treated as murder.

The Thai police seemed sure one of the men staying at the guesthouse - five of whom were foreigners, including three Britons - was the killer and that DNA tests would reveal his identity within days. But the forensic results cleared all the men.

The embassy continues to ‘‘register the fact that the family remain deeply concerned, that it remains a case of significant interest to people in Thailand and the UK, and that it will be beneficial all round if there were to be a breakthrough’’, a spokesman said.