The street vendors, who sold roti – a type of savoury Asian pancake – were recruited by police to help overcome the language barrier between them and the Burmese defendants, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, after they were arrested on 2 October.
The pair are accused of killing Mr Miller, a former Victoria College student, and Miss Witheridge, who was from Norfolk, on Sairee Beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao last September.
During the ninth day of the trial at a court in Koh Samui it emerged that the men tasked with translating the interviews with the defendants following their arrests spoke a different dialect of Burmese to the defendants.
The translators, who were from the Rohingya province of Burma, spoke Ruáingga, which is different to the Arakenese spoken by the defendants.
Defence lawyers also claim that cultural tension arising from the fact that the translators were Muslim and the defendants were Buddhist may also have hindered the investigation.
During the trial yesterday the translators, Ko Kama and Ko Ye, reportedly expressed difficulty in understanding some of the questions put to them. One of the men was unable to read a transcript of an interview he gave to a Burmese television station and was also unable to describe exactly what happened during the questioning.
Under questioning from the defence, Ko Ye said that he signed a statement confirming what happened in the interview even though he did not know what it said in Thai and he was not asked to sign it until a month afterwards.
Andy Hall, foreign affairs adviser for the Migrant Workers Rights Network, who are working closely with the defence team, said he did not understand how ‘men of these abilities could translate for the police’.
‘There have been many police procedural issues exposed in this third session of the trial this week, including inconsistencies in the timing of events around the arrest of the accused.
‘Police officers have contradicted each other about the times of various events, including the arrest of the men, the taking of DNA samples and the timing of their initial confessions.’
This morning, during the tenth day of the trial, the court was shown video footage of defendant Wai Phyo carrying out a re-enactment of the alleged crime.
Speaking on Twitter, Mr Hall said the video came as a surprise to the defence as they had been told they could not get a copy of the video, as it was ‘broken’.
The defendants deny charges of murder, rape and robbery.
The trial is due to continue next week.
David Miller
‘Dangerous’ or ‘Disco’ Dave to his friends, former Victoria College student David Miller was described as ‘a trusted friend’ by his brother Michael at the funeral, which was attended by hundreds of people at Trinity Church in October. The ‘blooming blue-eyed’ Islander, who was a talented artist, had been travelling in Asia with friends after spending the summer working in Australia. Mr Miller began his trip after graduating from a Leeds University Master’s-level civil engineering course. After his death, scores of friends and relatives paid tribute to the ‘one of a kind’ who was known for his humorous and friendly personality.
Hannah Witheridge
The gifted student (23) had travelled to Koh Tao with three friends. It is believed that she met Mr Miller on the island.
She had recently completed a BA in education studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, graduating in 2012 before moving to Colchester to study for an MA in speech therapy.
12 September 2014: David Miller, Hannah Witheridge and friends arrive at Koh Tao separately. They are staying at the Ocean View Bungalows, Sairee Beach.
14 – 15 September (early morning): Mr Miller and Miss Witheridge are captured on CCTV at Choppers Bar and then entering separately the AC Bar near Sairee Beach. Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo and a friend are seen on CCTV buying cigarettes on Sairee Beach, close to where the victims’ bodies were found.
15 September: The bodies are discovered near rocks on Sairee Beach close to Ocean View Bungalows. Post-mortem examinations carried out at a later date reveal that Mr Miller was killed by blows to the head and drowning, while Miss Witheridge died from head injuries and may have been raped.
15 September to 2 October: Investigations are carried out as Koh Tao becomes a hot-bed of international media. Police say DNA recovered from cigarettes found near the bodies and on Miss Witheridge will be crucial to finding those responsible. DNA samples are subsequently taken from hundreds of people at Koh Tao.
Jersey brothers Christopher and James Ware, who had been sharing a room with Mr Miller in Koh Tao, voluntarily stay in Thailand to help the police with their inquires.
2 October: Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo are arrested. Zaw Lin is apprehended at Koh Tao and Wai Phyo at a ferry terminal in Muang district in the Surat Thani province on the mainland. Police then reveal that both men have confessed to the murders and that DNA evidence links them to the crime scene and DNA found on Miss Witheridge’s body.
3 October: Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo are made to publicly re-enact the alleged crime on Sairee Beach. The re-enactment is observed by the international media.
7 October: The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand visit Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo in Koh Samui prison. They report to the media that the defendants both confessed to the crimes because they had been tortured, reportedly by being given electric shocks.
14 October: Koh Samui Court holds a preliminary witness hearing for three Burmese prosecution witnesses. They testify that the defendants were on Sairee Beach the night of the murder and Wai Phyo had found a mobile phone which may have belonged to Mr Miller but had passed it onto his unidentified friend.
October 20 to 23: The UK Foreign Office announce that British detectives will travel to Thailand to oversee the investigation following an intervention from Prime Minister David Cameron as controversy surrounding the Thai police’s handling of the case grows.
21 October: Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo retract their confessions to lawyers. Both allege they were beaten and tortured into confessing.
6 November: The defendants formally retract their confessions to case investigators.
8 December: The pair are charged at Koh Samui Court with murder, rape, illegally entering the country and residing without documentation. They deny all the charges.
26 December: During a preliminary case hearing at Koh Samui Court, the prosecution and defence agree to an 18-day trial starting on 8 July.
22 to 30 April 2015: Defence submit a formal request for independent testing of the DNA profiles of the two accused. The presiding court judge indicates to the lawyers that he would consider ordering the re-examination of forensic evidence.
