A fishmonger has been sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of two British medical students who were stabbed to death in Malaysia.

Aidan Brunger and Neil Dalton, both 22, were attacked in a bar in Kuching, Borneo, in August while on a work placement at a nearby hospital.

Zulkipli Abdullah, 23, had denied murdering the Newcastle University students but admitted being part of a brawl with them and two other people.

The death penalty is mandatory for murder in Malaysia.

After the sentence was handed down, the parents of the victims paid tribute to their sons and spoke of the devastation their ‘unprovoked and senseless’ murders had caused.

Prosecutor Muhamad Iskandar Ahmad said the court ruled that Zulkipli’s defence was ‘merely an afterthought’ and failed to raise any reasonable doubt in the case.

Mr Brunger, of Hempstead, Kent, and Mr Dalton, of Ambergate, Derbyshire, were discovered lying in the road in the early hours of August 6.

The two men had been working at a local hospital in Kuching – an area popular with backpackers.

They were stabbed and killed after an incident in a bistro or cafe in the early hours of the morning, an inquest into their deaths heard last year.

Five Malaysian men were later arrested but only Zulkipli was charged. His lawyer said he would appeal.

Their fathers positively identified their sons’ remains when they were flown back to the UK.

In a joint statement today Phil and Jan Dalton and Paul Brunger and Sue Hidson paid tribute to their sons who they described as ‘kind, funny and full of life’.

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Two British medical students were stabbed to death in Malaysia yesterday following an argument in a bar.

Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22, were reportedly knifed by a mob of local men who were high on drugs and had accused the Britons of being too noisy.

The fourth-year Newcastle University students had been due to fly home tomorrow following a six-week placement caring for patients at a hospital in Kuching on the island of Borneo.

Malaysian police said they were pounced on in the street after being tailed by a car as they walked home following the bar row.

Last night, as tributes poured in for the ‘highly committed’ aspiring doctors, officers said they had arrested three suspects who could now face the death penalty. A fourth was still at large.

The devastated families of Mr Brunger and Mr Dalton were informed of their deaths yesterday.

They had been staying at the £4-a-night Singgahsana backpacker hostel and putting their medical studies into practice during the summer secondment to Sarawak General Hospital.

The attack happened at 4.15am local time following a row in a city centre bar over the students being too noisy, said Sarawak deputy police commissioner Chai Khin Chung.

‘The four suspects came in [to the bar] and sat nearby,’ he told a press conference. ‘The two foreigners were quarrelling amongst themselves, and very noisy.

‘So these four are sitting nearby and then they told the two gentlemen not to be so noisy, and then the fight started. After that the two foreigners left the pub, the four followed from behind with a car.’

One of the men, a 23-year-old fishmonger, then got out and began stabbing the victims in the chest and back, Malaysian media reported.

He and his accomplices fled, leaving the students lying in the street.

Police were called by a restaurant owner who witnessed the attack. Officers raided the homes of three suspects, seizing a car and a knife less than two hours later.

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