Residents of Taupo in New Zealand have donated money to allow a close friend of murdered backpacker Karen Aim to accompany her body back home to Orkney.
Alan Robertson, who is from Orkney but is working in Taupo, will begin the journey back with the 26-year-old's body at the end of the week.
His fare has been paid by donations from residents who did not want the coffin to travel back unaccompanied.
Taupo's mayor, Rick Cooper, said he was shattered by Ms Aim's murder.
"We are just ashamed and gutted and feeling pretty bad"
"We've never had an attack or murder such as this," he said.
"We are a population of 20,000 people, in the middle of the North Island, up in the mountains, with a big, beautiful lake. It's a tourist town.
"We are just ashamed and gutted and feeling pretty bad down here."
Ms Aim died after suffering massive head injuries in an early morning attack last Thursday.
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