A coroner was overcome with emotion at an inquest yesterday as he read out family tributes to two British medical students stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in Malaysia.
Dr Robert Hunter adjourned the inquest into the deaths of Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22, to compose himself.
Mr Dalton and Mr Brunger were attacked by Zulkipli Abdullah, 23, in August last year as they walked back to their hostel on Borneo after a night out. The Newcastle University students were just days from completing six-week placements in the tourist city of Kuching.
Mr Hunter appeared upset as he asked the court: “Would it be all right if I took a few minutes please?” He then resumed the hearing ten minutes later.
The inquest heard how Mr Dalton, of Belper, Derbyshire, and Mr Brunger, from Hempstead, Kent, had struggled to hail a taxi and “cheekily” asked a car full of girls to give them a lift home. An argument flared with a man who later leapt out of a car and stabbed them.
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Abdullah was convicted of murder last March and sentenced to death. Prosecutors said that he sniffed his hands after the knifing and said: “The blood of white men smells nice.”
Recording verdicts of unlawful killing at Derby and south Derbyshire coroner’s court, Dr Hunter said there had been great hopes for the young men.