article: Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo killed Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, and David Miller, 24, from Jersey, judges said. The backpackers' bodies were found on a Koh Tao island beach in September 2014. The defendants' lawyers say they will appeal. The accused retracted their initial confessions, saying police had tortured them. Mr Miller's brother said justice had now "been delivered". Miss Witheridge's family said they needed time "to digest the outcome of the trial verdict". At a Thai court in Koh Samui, three judges found the two bar workers - who were migrants from Myanmar - guilty of murder and ordered they face the death penalty. Miss Witheridge and Mr Miller were found on a beach having been bludgeoned to death, and a post-mortem examination showed Miss Witheridge had been raped. Prosecutors said DNA evidence collected from cigarette butts, a condom and the bodies of the victims, linked Lin and Phyo to the deaths. By Jonathan Head, BBC South East Asia correspondent The investigation has been a muddled affair. The first officers on the scene were local police with apparently no idea how to seal off a crime scene. Thailand forensic scientist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, whose institute was not allowed any involvement in the investigation, testified the crime scene had been poorly managed and evidence improperly collected. Other flaws exposed during the trial included the police's failure to test Miss Witheridge's clothes or the alleged murder weapon for DNA. The key question though, hung over one piece of evidence that did tie the defendants to the crime: the alleged match between their DNA and that recovered from semen found on Miss Witheridge's body. The date of the original DNA analysis was said to have been 17 September, but the report submitted to court was dated 5 October - two days after police had announced a positive match. That unexplained discrepancy inevitably raises suspicion that perhaps the result was manipulated. Read more from Jonathan: A flawed and muddled investigation Lawyers defending the accused argued DNA from a garden hoe - allegedly used as the murder weapon - did not match samples taken from the men. They also claimed evidence had been mishandled by police and the pair's confessions were the result of "systematic abuse" of migrants in the area. Andy Hall, international affairs adviser for Migrant Worker Rights Network, which represented the men, said: "We strongly disagree with the decision of the court. This investigation was a shambles from the beginning. "The defence team have had access to all the information in this case and the information we saw did not comply with international standards." He said the defence team would mount an appeal in the case. Hannah Witheridge, 23, was a University of Essex student from Hemsby, near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Having earned a degree with first-class honours from the University of East Anglia she was working towards a masters degree in speech and language therapy in Essex. Her parents Tony and Sue, brother Paul and sisters Tania and Laura, described her as a "fun, vibrant and beautiful young woman" who
summary: Two Burmese men have been found guilty and sentenced to death for murdering two UK tourists in Thailand last year.