26/05/2005

Thai policeman sentenced to life for horrific murders

A Thai police sergeant has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering two British backpackers in September last year.

Adam Lloyd, 25, from Torquay, and his girlfriend Vanessa Arscott, 23, from Devon, were shot after a row broke out in a restaurant in Devon.

Somchai Wisetsingh denied murdering the couple and spent a month on the run in Burma before surrendering to Thai police.

Wisetsingh shot Lloyd in the stomach, head and arm and hit his girlfriend with a car before being shot in the head and the body.

He received two life sentences and was convicted on two separate weapon charges.

Miss Arscott’s grandmother, Eileen Arscott, was pleased with the verdict and said she hated him because he had killed her granddaughter and her boyfriend for absolutely no reason at all.

Adam and Vanessa had been travelling together for two months and were due to return to Britain three days after the tragedy happened.

(CD/SP)

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