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The parents of a British holidaymaker who died in suspicious circumstances in Thailand are convinced he was murdered – and the killing covered up to protect tourism.

Nick Pearson, 25, was on a family vacation to the island of Koh Tao when he was found dead on New Year’s Day.

His body was discovered in the sea close to the beach where British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were murdered a month ago.

Police there say Nick drowned after a 50ft fall.

But his parents are battling to disprove the official version of events.

They think he may have been followed back to his holiday bungalow and killed.

Despite being warned to keep quiet by people on the island, the family have refused to be silenced.

His parents, Tracy and Graham, who were on the holiday with Nick and their other son, Matt, 29, are being backed by British police as they fight for answers from the Thai authorities.

Tracy said: “It seems like they just want to protect their tourist industry but we need to know what happened.”

The family also think the police have got it wrong over the deaths of Hannah, 23, and David, 24.

Two bar workers, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun, have been charged with bludgeoning the pair to death.

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Amnesty International claims the Burmese men may have been tortured into confessing. A “reconstruction”, in which the men re-enacted the murders on Sairee beach, was also widely condemned.

Nick and his family were on the same beach in the hours before his death.

Tracy, 53, said: “We don’t believe the men they’ve arrested for killing Hannah and Miller have anything to do with it. It’s just a plan to show the police have acted so they don’t put tourists off.

"As soon as I saw the news about Hannah and David I cried for them and their parents because I know how hard it is to get the truth on that island.

“Seeing it all on the news – the same beach, the same police – has brought it all back and we’re finding it very hard to deal with.

“For us it’s horrendous, a living nightmare. We have to face the awful reality we might never get the answers we need.

"I just hope that one day someone will get to the bottom of what’s happening on Koh Tao, and what really happened to our wonderful son.”

She added: “We are sure our son was murdered but no one claims to know anything.

"We will keep campaigning for justice. We hope that having Koh Tao in the spotlight might help.”

Tracy, a benefits assessor, 56-year-old electrician Graham, and Nick, also an electrician, were among a large group of family and friends in Thailand on the holiday.

Tracy said: “We were all really excited. Nick loved Thailand – this was his seventh visit..”

They spent New Year’s Eve having dinner and drinks, including a cocktail in the Choppers Bar and Grill which was visited by Hannah and David shortly before they were killed.

Tracy said that after their meal they headed to Sairee beach for the New Year countdown and fireworks.

She said: “At about 1am we decided to head back to our resort. We were staying in bungalows on a steep hillside overlooking the sea.

“My husband walked Nick back to his bungalow and saw him get in bed.”

The family began to worry on New Year’s Day because they had not seen or heard from Nick for hours.

Later, friends came to Tracy’s room to reveal that otel staff had told them Nick had been found dead in the sea.

“I fell to my knees,” Tracy said. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We were crying, numb, confused.”

(Image: Family handout/PA)

Taken to a temple to identify the body, the parents saw that their son’s head was gashed.

They soon began to question the police’s version of events. Tracy said: “Even with our shock and grief, we knew it didn’t add up.

"He would never have gone swimming of his own accord. And if he’d fallen from his bungalow, 50ft down, his body would have been stopped by the rocks or badly injured.

“He didn’t look like someone who had been in the water for hours – there was still dried blood on his face. It was all wrong.

"We knew he liked a Thai girl he’d met and we wondered if that had caused offence, and that someone followed him and did him harm.”

She added: “The police didn’t look at his room or the area where he was found. There was no attempt to investigate.

"They spent most of their time laughing and joking as we asked questions.”

Tracy said her son Matt was warned there are “powerful people on the island”, and that the family should leave rather than stirring up trouble.

They also heard other holidaymakers had died on the island and their bodies “thrown into the water in the hope they’d be washed away”.

When the family, of the Mickleover suburb of Derby, brought Nick’s body home a week later, a post-mortem revealed he had drowned.

The coroner opened an investigation, on the grounds it was a suspicious death.

Tracy said: “Nick had no broken bones which seemed strange for someone who’d fallen all that way.

"The postmortem report said the possibility he was assaulted before death could not be excluded.”

Their demands for answers are being backed by British police who are working with the Foreign Office to try to question the Thai authorities ahead of a UK inquest in December.

Tracy said: “I haven’t been able to go back to work. I feel like I’m just stuck in this limbo. Not knowing what happened is a kind of torture.”

* The men charged with murdering Hannah and David have retracted their confessions, it has emerged.

Burmese lawyer Aung Myo Thant said the 21-year-old bar workers claim Thai police forced them to confess by beating them.