kang
Sep 20 2009By Coreena Ford
Sunday Sun (UK)
KHMER Rouge murder victim John Dewhirst’s sister has revealed how she hopes good can come from his killer’s trial.
John was the only Briton among 17,000 to die after being captured during the communist Khmer Rouge’s rule over Cambodia in the 1970s.
Now, 31 years after his death, his murderer, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, is being tried by a UN-backed tribunal on genocide charges.
He has already confessed to John’s murder and invited victims of the regime to visit him.
But John’s sister Hilary Holland, 53, a solicitor from Brampton, Cumbria, has refused to attend and says she has not even been able to bring herself to utter John’s name in more than 30 years.
An aspiring novelist, John left home after finishing his A-levels to explore and bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo, where he got a teaching post and a part-time job on a newspaper.
He quit in 1978, aged 26, after deciding to join pals on travels around the Gulf of Thailand in their boat The Foxy Lady.
But when they drifted into Cambodian waters, a Khmer Rouge military launch swooped.
Stuart Glass was shot dead instantly and the other two were taken to the S21 torture centre – a former school – where, after enduring a catalogue of horrors, they were forced to sign confessions they were CIA agents.
John was the only Briton among 17,000 to die after being captured during the communist Khmer Rouge’s rule over Cambodia in the 1970s.
Now, 31 years after his death, his murderer, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, is being tried by a UN-backed tribunal on genocide charges.
He has already confessed to John’s murder and invited victims of the regime to visit him.
But John’s sister Hilary Holland, 53, a solicitor from Brampton, Cumbria, has refused to attend and says she has not even been able to bring herself to utter John’s name in more than 30 years.
An aspiring novelist, John left home after finishing his A-levels to explore and bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo, where he got a teaching post and a part-time job on a newspaper.
He quit in 1978, aged 26, after deciding to join pals on travels around the Gulf of Thailand in their boat The Foxy Lady.
But when they drifted into Cambodian waters, a Khmer Rouge military launch swooped.
Stuart Glass was shot dead instantly and the other two were taken to the S21 torture centre – a former school – where, after enduring a catalogue of horrors, they were forced to sign confessions they were CIA agents.
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