Two sentenced for backpacker murder

Miss Harburn was stabbed 17 times by her attackers

Two men have been sentenced for the murder of a British backpacker stabbed to death in China three years ago.

Shirine Harburn, 30, from Crawley in Sussex, was found dead on a mountain path in the Sichuan region of China.

Miss Harburn, who had been trekking through Asia with her boyfriend Colin Horsfield, had been stabbed 17 times.

The two men were found guilty of her murder and an earlier robbery on a Chinese national after a trial in July.

Throughout this whole tragic affair Shirine's family have been under considerable strain Det Supt Chris Gillings, Sussex Police

Sussex Police and Miss Harburn's family were told of the sentence handed down to the pair, both Chinese nationals, on Thursday.

Li Fajian was sentenced to the death penalty and Mao Xianhui to life imprisonment.

They have 10 days in which to appeal against their sentence, Sussex Police said.

Miss Harburn's family and her boyfriend travelled to China for the trial, accompanied by Detective Superintendent Chris Gillings, of Sussex Police.

Forensic work

He said: "Throughout this whole tragic affair Shirine's family have been under considerable strain and hopefully now they can begin to put these events behind them and move forward with their lives.

"The liaison that has been achieved between the British police, the Chinese police and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London has enabled this tragic matter to be brought to a conclusion."

Mr Gillings was one of three officers to travel to China in April 2002 to talk to the officers investigating the case.

They returned in February this year with the results of forensic work conducted in the UK.

Miss Harburn, a trained counsellor from Langley Green in Crawley, disappeared on 9 May 2000 after she decided to walk alone up a mountain close to the town of Kangding.

A team of 100 Chinese officers found her body on 11 May at the end of a trail of blood in undergrowth 3,000 feet up Paomao Hill.

In May last year, a verdict of unlawful killing was recorded at an inquest in Crawley.