UK help urged for Thai murder

Police are no closer to finding Kirsty Jones killer

The governmment is being urged to put pressure on Thailand to allow British police to become involved in the inquiry into the death of Welsh backpacker Kirsty Jones.

The Liberal Democrat MP Richard Livsey claimed the Thai police investigation has been badly handled - after DNA tests on 11 suspects have failed to find the killer.

Her family said they were disappointed by this latest set back in the murder investigation.

Kirsty Jones was found raped and murdered at a travellers' hostel in the northern Thai city of Chang Mai three weeks ago.

The 23-year-old Liverpool university graduate from Tredomen in Powys was just three months into a two-year backpacking tour of the world.

Richard Livsey wants British police to help in the investigation

Last Friday more than eight hundred people attended her funeral at the village church in Llanfilo, near her childhood home.

An inquest held in Brecon into her death found that she had been unlawfully killed.

Thai police said on Thursday that DNA tests on 11 suspects had ruled them out of any direct involvement in her death.

They had been relying on the tests to prove a link with the killer

This effectively leaves the investigation with no real suspect.

The hostel where Kirsty Jones was staying

Throughout the inquiry Thai police have come under heavy criticism for their handling of the inquiry, and the chief investigator hunting the killer was removed from the case for a lack of progress.

At the beginning of the inquiry 12 suspects were questioned.

DNA tests have since cleared five foreign nationals including two Britons, and a third with dual British and Australian nationality.

Two Thai men, including a rickshaw driver and a tour guide, were also ruled out of the investigation.

Two DNA tests on the Thai manager if the guesthouse where Kirsty Jones has also proved inconclusive.

The Brecon and Radnor MP Richard Livsey said he was extremely concerned about the quality of the Thai police investigation.

He said he believed it had been handled in a very unprofessional way.

He called on the Government to pressure Thailand into allowing British police to fly out to assist in the case.