Thai Men Plead Guilty to Briton's Rape and Murder

Two Thai fishermen arrested for the rape and murder of British tourist Katherine Horton pleaded guilty on both charges in court today.

Bualoi Posit, 23, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, were charged with attacking Ms Horton - a 21-year-old Reading university student from Wales - on Lamai beach on the southern resort island of Koh Samui on New Year's Day.

A jetskier found her body, still in an evening dress, floating in the Gulf of Thailand on the morning of January 2.

The two men nodded in turn when asked by a judge at the provincial court in Surat Thani, 330 miles (520 km) south-west of Bangkok, whether they were guilty as charged.

Wichai's lawyer, Promphatchara Namuang, confirmed that both men pleaded guilty, and said that a hearing to determine their punishment would begin tomorrow and probably last for just one day.

The murder charge carries a possible death penalty, though Thai courts usually reduce the sentence to life imprisonment or less in cases where defendants plead guilty.

Another of the men's lawyers, Amarin Nuimai, said his clients had confessed to him.

"They were really drunk, they'd just seen a pornographic film," he told the Guardian after the men's first court appearance. "They swam to the beach and wanted to have sex. When they saw Katherine they looked at each other and said: 'Let's do it'."

Ms Horton, from Thornhill, near Cardiff, was on the phone to her mother at the time. She tried to resist but was overpowered and knocked out before being raped and dumped in the sea.

Forensic experts have allegedly matched DNA from the two men with DNA found on Ms Horton.