The killers of a backpacker from Hemsby are pleading for a retrial 10 years on, according to letters written to their lawyers. 

Burmese bar workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun, both 29, are serving life sentences in Thailand for raping and killing Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Hemsby, and killing David Miller, 24, from Jersey, in 2014.  

Ms Witheridge and Mr Miller were last seen leaving a bar together on the Thai island of Koh Tao on September 15, just hours before a beach cleaner discovered their bodies at around 4.30am. 

Both Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were given death sentences but these were reduced to life sentences after a royal pardon in 2020.

They had initially confessed before withdrawing their statements, claiming to have been tortured, and a number of campaigners said they had been set up by Thai authorities wanting to protect the country’s reputation. 

In one recent letter obtained by the Daily Mirror, Zaw Lin wrote of being upset at spending so much of his youth in prison. 

He said: “I have been in prison [for] almost 10 years for nothing, it’s unbelievable... Could you please retrial again my case? I’ve never seen the people who died on the beach at Koh Tao.” 

In another, he added: “I will be 29 this month. It’s so sad to know that I am wasting my young life away for nothing. I think I will get out of prison in a few more years... as I have already been in prison a long time. 

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"They should set me free now. I am sad to think I wasted my young life in prison for nothing.” 

Ms Witheridge had earned a first-class degree from the University of East Anglia before enrolling on a master's speech and language ther­­apy degree in Essex. 

She had met Mr Millerhad during the trip and they had become friends.