A Thai tribesman has escaped the death penalty for the murder of a popular Scots schoolteacher.
David Crisp, 56, from Lasswade in Midlothian, was found bludgeoned to death with his throat cut in the northern city of Chiang Mai two years ago.
The only man to face trial for the killing, 23-year-old Akha Hill tribesman Awoei Yaepiang, has had his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment.
He was saved from lethal injection by an early guilty plea.
The sentence marks the end of a two-year ordeal for Mr Crisp’s brother Andy and his wife Susan, who have had to endure court wrangles and innuendo about the former Lasswade High School teacher’s private life.
Mrs Crisp, who has said previously that the death penalty was justified for pre-meditated killing, nevertheless hailed Awoei’s life sentence.
She said: “It’s longer than he would have got here. We’re just glad it’s over now and we can get closure. Every time someone comes on the phone and mentions David’s name it brings it all back.
“We hope that the sentence will bring an end to the matter, particularly after some of the nonsense that was printed about him in some sections of the press. Unless you’ve gone through it yourself, you cannot know how difficult it is. We can mourn David now the way he should have been mourned.”
After the killing. Awoei was paraded before the press in Thailand, where he demonstrated how he slit Mr Crisp’s throat before bludgeoning him repeatedly with a teak vase.
He and his accomplices then raided Mr Crisp’s possessions, including cash stolen from a safe, before making off in his car.
