Backpacker murder hunt 'no shambles'

British officials "have confidence in the Thai police"

The hunt for the killer of a Welsh backpacker in Thailand is not a shambles, according to British embassy officials.

Kirsty Jones, aged 23, of Brecon in Powys, who had been on a round-the-world trip, was found raped and strangled in a £1-a-night guesthouse in Chiang Mai on August 10.

The Thai police inquiry into the murder has so far failed to find the killer and has been derided as "shambolic" by some commentators.

However, British officials in Thailand have rejected calls to intervene in the inquiry.

They said they had confidence in the Thai police's investigation.

British ambassador Barney Smith has been fully briefed on the progress of the hunt by the second most senior police officer in Thailand, Commissioner General Narongvich Thaitong.

Afterwards, British embassy spokesman Tom Carter said the police had assured the officials they were acting "with the utmost vigour".

"The police spoke to the ambassador and gave him a full briefing on the case and on the progress in the investigation to date," he said.

"We were pleased that the police came and briefed us at a very senior level.

"We were given a lot of information that was useful to have but I can't comment on the detail of the briefing as it was confidential."

Kirsty Jones was on a round-the-world trip

Detectives have carried out DNA-tests on all the men at the hostel in an attempt to find Miss Jones's murderer. But none of them matched DNA evidence at the scene of the crime.

Early in the inquiry, a local Thai newspaper, The Nation, reported a senior British embassy official as saying the investigation was "a shambles".

The opinion was echoed by Miss Jones's local MP, the Liberal Democrat Richard Livsey, who said the Thai police investigation had been badly handled and that British police should be allowed in.

However, Mr Carter said: "It has never been our view that it has been shambolic."

He said he did not think British police should now intervene in the case.

'Utmost vigour' of inquiry

"The competent authority to run a criminal investigation in Thailand is the Thai police.

"They have told us they are pursuing the case with the utmost vigour and that we will be told whenever there is a development."

A large number of officers were involved in the inquiry, he added.

Last Friday more than 800 people attended Kirsty Jones's funeral at the village church in Llanfilo, near her childhood home.

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