Two British brothers who left the Thai island of Koh Tao where police are investigating the brutal murders of two British back-packers were stopped by police at Suvarnabhumi International airport last night before boarding a London bound flight. The two men believed to be Christopher (left) and James Ware from Jersey – friends of one of the victims David Miller - were asked by police to remain in Thailand pending further investigation.
They had shared Room K8 at the Ocean View guest house in Koh Tao with David Miller, 24, whose badly battered naked body was found on the beach yards away from the similarly battered body of Hannah Witheridge,23, from Great Yarmouth, on Monday morning.
Thailand’s Deputy Police Chief General Somyot Pumpunmuang was quoted by the Nation newspaper in Bangkok said that the men were being asked to stay for 48 hours. ‘We have asked the British Embassy for their co-operation.”
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A news blackout has been put in place by Police Region 8 which covers South Thailand and the islands, including Koh Tao. Statements can now only be issued at the regional headquarters in Surat Thani – and from the office of the Tourist Police.
It is clear from statements issued by police and from the office of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-o-cha that foremost in their minds is the country’s image. Mindful of previous murder cases it is believed British Consul Michael Hancock has asked Thai police limit their press releases until a clear picture emerges.
A Briton who was reported today to be helping police enquiries on Koh Tao appears to be just doing just that. Police said they were interviewing a number of foreigners who were in nearby clubs. The Tourist Police had no comment early today.
Nor could they comment on claims from a local police source that police on Koh Tao had obtained a blonde hair during yesterday’s interrogations of six Burmese and were awaiting forensic results.
BUT THAI PRESS FINGER OF ACCUSATION RETURNS TO BRIT - AS TWO ARE STOPPED FROM LEAVING THAILAND. 'Hannah was gripping blond hair before she died' - claim (but perhaps not as dramatic as it sounds)
Murder victim David Miller likely struggled with his attacker in the sea off the Thai holiday island of Koh Tao before being hacked to death. He may have been protecting fellow victim Hannah Witheridge. Hannah did have sexual relations before she died but there was no sign of rape, according a report from the Police Hospital’s Institute of Forensic Medicine in a report leaked to the Thai newspaper Matichon and confirmed by the Institute’s Commander Police major General Pornchai Suteerakhun.
The report states that Miller was most likely killed with a bloodstained hoe found some 50 yards away, but forensic results show an intense struggle before he died during which he probably entered the sea with his adversary or adversaries, as water had entered his lungs.
Hannah was found further up Sairee Beach on Koh Tao and there were also signs that she had put up a fight. She too, it is believed was hacked to death with the same weapon. David Miller's worst injuries were to the back and side of his head - Hannah's injuries were direct to her face.
The newspaper reports (the Bangkok Post followed Matichon's lead) state that a pair of Christopher Ware’s blood-stained pants were found in the possession (in the luggage) of David Miller, who, along with Hannah Witheridge, were killed Monday on Koh Tao.
But David Miller, Christopher Ware and James Ware all shared the same room, K8 at the Ocean View Guest House in Koh Samui. Why would a murderer put a paid of incriminating jeans in a place where they would immediatelty be found?
It becomes apparent these claims are not part of the forensic report.
The Matichon report copied by the Bangkok Post then appears to add further claims which are not in the Forensic Report.
There are now police claims that that they found blond hairs in Hannah’s right hand suggesting a foreigner was involved because again Christopher Ware's 'blond' hair is mentioned (He does not have blond hair)
Christopher Ware and James Ware were stopped on Tuesday night before boarding a flight to London. They have been asked to wait in Thailand pending the results of forensic tests.
Thai Police have asked the British Embassy for their co-operation.
Christopher Ware was interviewed by police in Koh Tao and then released. Its alleged that he had some wounds on him, but he said they were days old and from an incident on the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan.
Police were surprised he left the island so quickly but yesterday their interest in him appeared to diminish by the hour. In fact last night Colonel Somyot Poompamoung confirmed they were not being held prisoner and were merely awaiting confirmation of the forensic results.
"I believe they have rebooked their tickets already."
It should be stressed that this is not part of the Forensic report because these hairs still have to undergo forensic examination. So the newspaper reports appear to have been marshalled info so the facts point in one direction.
If for instance Hannah had blond hair in her hand as it is suggested the logical answer would be that she reached up to touch her wounds. A report suggesting it was not her hair is not directly linked to the official forensic study.
There is also a report that they found blond hairs snagged in an i-phone, but again the source of this story is not official,maybe another red herring. The owner of the phone is not identified.
That's another myth debunked unless of course the General is as unrealiable as other police quoted in the various media which is unlikely.
There are not many journalists who have not heard the one about the mad gay foreigner who attacked the couple in a raging fit of jealousy who was caught on CCTV picking up the hoe from a building site.
It appears CCTV footage identified by police as being that of David and Hannah is now not CCTV footage of David and Hannah.
There is a press conference in Koh Tao tomorrow morning. This is presumably to announce that yesterdays' reports were a pile of manure and now there are an exciting new set of circumstances - so although General Panya Mamen, Commander of Region 8 has announced that the Burmese immigrants already interviewed, can we expect the pendulum to swing back?
UPDATE 7am September 18 2014: The Thai Bangkok Post is now quoting police as saying the blood on Mr, Ware's trousers is not blood but possibly a chemical substance. DNA tests had failed to produce a match so far. Further DNA tests showed that the DNA from semen matched the DNA from a cigarette discarded nearby. There is no further mention of a condom found nearby.
Meanwhile Thai police including the Regional Police Chief General Panya Mamen are being quoted as saying another Burmese was being held for questioning on Koh Tao,
Friends of Adam Pickles the 42-year-head of English at an international school in Thailand reacted with fury today as another Briton who allegedly attacked him and put him in a coma walked free from a Thai court.
Adam Pickles, from Bradford, was attacked in Pattaya three years ago in apparent ‘road rage’ attack after Adam glanced the vehicle of another Brit Sean Henry Tinsley, from Wolverhampton, who was offering a ‘visa service’ in the town.
It’s alleged Pickles was attacked from behind by Pickles with a wheel brace.
He went into a coma and has not come out of it. He is still under care after being flown back to Yorkshire.
The prosecution are understood to have presented CCTV evidence.
The family has already protested to their local MP about irregularities in the trial process.
Tinsley had previously been arrested by Thai Police for visa fraud and many of his clients were arrested and had to pay ‘heavy fines’ of 200,000 baht each after they bought visas off Tinsley, which were provided by a rogue Thai official.
No case however was proceeded with.
Today Pattaya Court acquitted Tinsley, from Wolverhampton.
Further details later when the judgment is released.
However below is the immediate reaction from friends of the well loved Head of English at the International School of the Regents.
Quite some anger is expressed and I have 'redacted' a little. But I really feel for his family and friends. The news was broken by Adam's father Andrew on this Facebook page.
Two men had sex with Hannah Witheridge on the night she died and the DNA on one matched the DNA found on a cigarette discarded nearby. DNA tests also showed no matches with 12 Burmese so far interviewed and no matches with Christopher Ware,25, a travelling companion of David Miller whose naked body was found near that of Hannah, 23, from Great Yarmouth, on Monday morning.
The revelations by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok, which also show that both parties put up a fight, scotch rumours and innuendo which have been carried in the Thai press all week.
Another Burmese man is being held today, according to Regional Police Chief General Panya Mamen.
Now pressure is on the Thai police to say whether the DNA is Asian or Causasian – information which finally ruled out westerners in the murder and rape of Kirsty Jones, 23, from Brecon, in a guest house in the northern capital Chiang Mai in 2001. More to follow.
SUSPECTS ZERO - ESCAPE ROUTES OPEN - AND BURMESE TAKE THE BRUNT OF POLICE OPERATIONS. Thai Police were today raiding the homes and workplaces of more Burmese migrant workers on the Thai holiday island of Koh Tao after DNA tests showed no matches with any former suspects in the murders of Britons Hannah Witheridge and David Miller. After clearing James and Christopher Ware the long term friends of David Miller and all the Burmes suspects officers raided the area of the ‘Secret Garden Resort’ on the island taking away four workers. One was a Burmese mechanic who had been on the island for over a decade. He looked considerably puzzled about his arrest - but meekly joined the other three.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Police also went looking for a Burmese working in an American restaurant called ‘Bookers’ – but he had since left the island.
According to the owner he did not turn up for work on Monday - but he had said earlier that he was leaving.
In fact, as the island was never ever locked down (contrary to earlier reports) the killer or killers, who battered the young Brits to death with a hoe early on Monday morning, could not only have but are likely to have made their escape some time ago.
There are four ferry routes out and numerous local boats at their disposal.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.An old island hand, who, requested that neither his name nor even nationality be disclosed said: “If the culprits are Thai and from this island they'll either be gone or they will be protected by local forces.
“National Police should also be looking at long term Thais or Burmese who have recently left.”
Asked what forces – replied: ‘Leave it at that’.
There has always been a close relationship with police and the principal island families who control every money making business in this holiday idyll in one form or another.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Claims today that police were looking for three men - two tall men, one short - who were seen on Sairee beach near the place the bodies where the bodies of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were found, smoking, playing guitar and singing an "English" song in the early hours of Monday morning, were being met with some puzzlement.
Koh Tao police chief Prachum Ruangthongm asked whether the killer might have left replied: “It’s difficult to say.”
DNA forensic evidence now points to the fact that two male raped Hannah and one of their DNAs matched DNA found on a cigarette found nearby.
Members of the family of Witheridge, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, met Royal Thai Police adviser Jarumporn Suramanee at police headquarters today.
British Consul Michael Hancock said that they were still distressed and it had been comforting to get information from the top as opposed to what they had been getting from the media.
He did not divulge what the Deputy Chief Police told the family.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Had the killers left the island they could have gone by ferry to the islands of Koh Phangan, or Koh Samui or to the mainland provincial capital of Surat Thani, or the town of Chumpon.
From Chumpon to Victoria Point is only a short trip across the isthmus of Thailand (Isthmus of Kra) - and ,if the culprits are indeed Burmese as the Thais claim, then they could be back home and safe in half a day.
There are checkpoints but police had no names to pass on.
COMMENT:
Sue Jones, the mother of Kirsty Jones, who was brutally raped, and murdered in the northern capital of Chiang Mai in 2001 commented on this site's Facebook page earlier in the week:
"Here we go again,botched investigation, dna contaminated,red herrings everywhere.... Makes me so mad". Let's hope she is wrong.
Below - one former long term resident's view of Koh Samui - which give another perspective of island life, with thanks to 'John Trove'.
These are the opening titles to the film trailer for ‘The Beach’ from the novel by Alex Garland, at one time a backpacker's bible. ‘The Beach’ in question chosen for the film was ‘Maya Beach’ in Koh Phi Phi Ley but it could have been any of the more remote beaches in the Samui Archipelago of Thailand and in particularly Sairee Beach on Koh Tao.
And once against those words echo in a wry way in Thailand as they have done so many times before as the bodies of two more Britons whose only guilt it now seems was just being here were found brutally hacked to death with a garden hoe while one was raped by two men.
There is little evidence to show they were doing nothing more than chatting and looking up at the stars.
'I feel like I want to do something different but I end up doing the same thing' (as everyone else) - character played by Leonardo di Caprio as he ends up on The Beach;.
I am the only journalist in Thailand to have covered all the worst murders of Britons in Thailand over the last 20 plus years and my heart sank again this week in that ‘not again’ feeling.
Thailand does not learn and it is not going to learn. So we have to. People are again deceived by its seductive beaches, palms and smiles….all of which are wonderful but all of which can hide something quite different.
First in 1996 there was Joanne Masheder,23, from the Wincle, Cheshire, murdered by a monk Yodchat Suaphu in the grounds of Wat Tham Khao Poon in Kanchanaburi, where she was thrown into a cave. The monk, it was later discovered had previously been jailed for rape and confessed to raping an Australian woman, but was never charged.
It was some time before her body was found and in the hue and cry the media were deflecting the fault away from Thailand. “Insurance Scam Suspected’ ran a headline in the Thai Rath, suggested she was not dead at all, but foreigners wanted to collect the insurance on her demise.
Then in 2001 there was Kirsty Jones, also 23, from Brecon, Wales, murdered and brutally raped and sodomised in the Aree Guest House in Chiang Mai in 2001.
Thai Police rounded on the Burmese, picking out a tour guide called Narong taking him to a safe house where they tortured him but failed to gain a confession.
Amazingly I was led to the guide by a Thai journalist who said: ‘We can’t report this until you do.” I did. Then the Thai press did.
Police also arrested a variety of foreigners from the guest house and had to let them go. The Police detective at the time said that, although the semen samples were Asian, the killer could easily have bought the sperm off a male sex worker.
There was no result to this investigation even though it was eventually taken over by the DSI.
Somchai with Vanessa before he ran he ran her down and executed her in Kanchanburi
Then in 2005 a police sergeant, Somchai Wisetsingh, gunned down Vanessa Arscott, and Adam Lloyd, from Devon, on the River Kwai Road in Kanchanaburi. They had dined in his S&S restaurant and Somchai had got fresh with Vanessa. Adam has put him in his place.
First Adam was shot by the roadside and Somchai turned his car on Vanessa who was running away. He ran her down crippling her then executed her as she held on to a police supporting electricity cables and shot her three times, once in the forehead, once in the face and once in the neck. Somchai claimed in his trial he hardly know Vanessa and had not talked to her. But our picture proved otherwise.
Then in 2006 the body of 24-year-old Katherine Horton, from Cardiff, a student at Reading University, was found near Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, She had been raped and beaten to death and her body had been pushed out into the water.
Katherine had innocently taken a walk along the beach at night, perhaps look at the stars, but also to call and catch up with news from her mum. The attack happened as she was talking to her mum who heard her screams.
Local police started rounding up locals and foreigners but a team was rushed down from Bangkok to take over.
They found the culprits. They were Thai fisherman who had even gone back to their boat and boasted of their deed to their colleagues. Katherine, they said, was ‘roi’ – (aroi) Thai for ‘delicious’. None had thought to tell police.
There of course have also been many other attacks and rapes which were not fatal, such as the rape of a 19-year-old Dutch model in Krabi after which her father composed the song ‘Evil Man of Krabi’ – and of course there have been many murders of British men.
There is a common denominator amongst all the young British women murdered. They all fit the demographic, pretty, intelligent, middle class and all had close loving families.
A shocked Aussie Nathan Foley - detained in the Kirsty Jones case
They were not errant wild promiscuous women here getting drunk on beaches and throwing their clothes off.
All these were sensible level headed young women with great prospects ahead.
And each time their names were dragged through the mud by the Thai press and officialdom.
A policeman in the Kirsty Jones case announced that she probably had ‘consensual sex with her killer but the scene turned ugly when he demanded anal sex’, and here in Thailand the Thai press have depicted Hannah and David Miller couple as promiscuous, and that they were attacked by a mad and jealous gay boyfriend of David Miller.
Not only that but some foreigners on the island have been putting out the same story. It’s been appearing on the forum Thaivisa.com.
The BBC’s Jonathan Head has been doing an excellent job and at times I think he has had to hide his frustration as the blame has been put on the Burmese then on David Miller’s British friends, back to the Burmese, then back to the Brits…to the Burmese and a final admission that police still did not have a clue.
But when, in the interests of balance Jonathan produced a Brit who told us all that this was an isolated incident and that Koh Tao was a wonderful, peaceful , serene..choose your word, idyllic island, I almost choked as I had to listen to him prior to broadcasting on the Today Show on BBC Radio 4. My reply was tweeted extensively.
“It’s not an isolated incident,” I said. “We have had quite a few people murdered here over the last 20 years,’ I replied and then listed them – and there is more to that island than palms and beaches.
Later on I told BBC Good Morning Scotland the same. And then on came BBC Radio 5 Live who wanted to talk about the ‘outrageous’ remarks made by Prime Minister General Prayuth about women wearing bikinis.
Here’s a quick reminder: The General said:
"Tourists think that Thailand is beautiful, safe and that they can do anything they want here. That they can put on their bikinis and go anywhere they want. I ask, can you get away with wearing bikinis in Thailand? Unless you are not beautiful?"
The British media, led by the Daily Mail (banned in Thailand) went berserk.
The General apologized:
“I am sorry with what I said and if it has caused any ill-feelings. I just wanted to warn tourists that we have different traditions and they have to stay on their toes."
I duly replied that yes in the normal context those remarks could be considered outrageous but in the Thai context not so much. In Bangkok for instance Thai women will be reluctant to get into a taxi alone late at night. My Thai friends for instance, book drivers they know when going home late. I said I was sure nobody had a problem in Thailand wearing a bikini on a beach during the daytime when many other people were there but that might be foolish at night alone.
Again the interviewer rounded on me asking how could I not consider it scandalous. I said that while I did not necessarily agree with the way General Prayuth put it I could see it from his point of view – the real scandal was the investigation.
And then along comes LBC ‘Well of course we know this is an isolated incident Andrew…..’ now by this time I am really fired up…..No it is not that isolated!….I said reeling off the murders.
My host ended with the final line: ‘Well I guess it cannot help having a military junta……’ The audio line was cut before I could say: ‘Well actually it does help…have you lived under democracy here?’
All in all a helter-skelter week. I know personally several of the parents of kids murdered in Thailand and we sort of keep in touch. One who has been very infrequently in touch because she has followed every step the FCO has told her (and got nowhere) is Kirsty Jones' mother Sue.
Readers will have seen that she has recently been in touch through Facebook. I am angry. I am angry that lessons are never learned; that the message does not get through that while Thailand is safe, it can be very dangerous and can and will continue to catch people off guard unless they act very cautiously.
And I am angry at Britain’s Foreign Office officials, whom while they put up advisories on their website, bury the emotional realities in rather dry statistics published each year.
Andrew Drummond has been contributing to ITN News, Sky News, London Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, The Sun, BBC Today Programme, BBC Scotland, on the recent murders in Koh Tao.
THE BEST LAID SCHEMES O' MICE AND MEN GANG AFT AGLEY. AN' LAE'E US NOUGHT BUT GRIEF AN' PAIN' ****
The Flying Sporran took a short break yesterday to celebrate the continued union of the United Kingdom and that bit to the left on top of Ireland. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.He also commiserated, but very briefly, with fake Scottish lawyer Brian Goudie, aka Goldie – Thailand’s most famous Scot who has done six years in Australia for theft and who is nowup in court in Pattaya on fraud charges and whose dreams were shattered by the 'No' vote. In the lead up to what turned out to be a vote against separation devout separatist Goudie, aka Brian Gerald James Goldie, joined the ‘ its oor oil ‘ bandwagon and was liberally quoting William Wallace and the Scottish poet Rabbie Burns, whose poems are of course not quite everybody’s cup of tea or wee dram, but many Scots swear by them.
He has been boasting that his father – apparently a former UKIP candidate – is the President of the Falkirk Burns Club a lofty position almost up there alongside the President of the Lions Club Silom (310D).
This truly is a gruelling task every year having to recite poems to a lump of sheep entrails and brain in a sheep’s stomach topped up with mashed potato and turnips . At my school on Loch Ness I dreaded ‘Burns Night’ coming around every year when I would hide in my study with a peanut butter sandwich. The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders which recruited in the area would not waste the pipes on such a lowland custom - though they do like sheep.
Goudie in kilt. He lost the girl and not even the reciting of Burns poetry on Facebook could bring her back
And there’s a thing, Scots always refer to the Battle of Culloden (a disaster) and the Jacobite victories as their battles! They seem to forget that there were more Scots fighting against ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ during the second Jacobite rising in 1745 than for him – and that included the forerunners to the Scots Guards, Royal Highland Fusiliers, Argyll and Sutherland Highlnders and every Jimmy Cockaleekie and ‘all.
The Camerons and Drummond were on the Jacobite side and ‘papist’.
In fact the Earl of Perth (a Drummond of course) had the perhaps dishonour to lead the Jacobite Scots (incompetently as it turned out)at Culloden.
The Drummonds I hope did all look like the plonker in the picture at the top of this article, who looks like he just came off the slow boat from Rimini.
Goudie and #DavidHanks – and these are no highland names for sure – reacted violently in court recently when I told a judge I had the cut of their jibs (Well I did not say that exactly it would have been too much for the interpreter but I was able to supply two Thai versions of ‘all fur coat and nae knickers’).
I told the judge that as I was a Scot and once bureau chief for a British newspaper in Glasgow I knew the journalists who reported on his misdeeds there and as I had worked out of Sydney, Australia (for Murdoch) I had pretty good access to his misdeeds in Aus too.
I have a decidedly neutral British accent having lived mostly in Inverness-shire, where the English can understand the clear but Highland accent and in Berkshire and Oxfordshire (or anywhere within 40 miles of Heathrow where my ex-Royal Air Force father was based as an airline pilot and one of the first 12 pilots to the forerunners of British Airways).
“We are not all Rob Roys’ , I replied, which was followed by another saliva spraying monologue from Goudie.
The Flying Sporran does have a kilt and I bring it out once or twice a year in a yet to be realised dream that some ‘lassie’ will want to know what I wear under it.
But as Burns night is on January 25th there is not even a whisper of wind in Bangkok to help to reveal those fine buttocks etc. Goudie has a kilt too borrowed from some clan he may be distantly related too. ( If you wish to see more of him then there is a sleazy video on the internet from his mobile phone which mysteriously found itself there when he fell out with a former Thai girlfriend ).
But of course it was the likes of his ilk who actually proscribed highland men from wearing the kilt in the first place
It only became popular as Queen Victoria a bit of a feisty young and old Queen who was not at all like her reputation (Victorian values) like 'the kilt'.
She liked her Scotsmen wearing it and sent Scottish regiments all around the world to do her bidding, quite successfully it seems according to all these maps I have seen with lots of red in them. She also liked her trusty manservant John Brown in a kilt.
The thing is if Scotland achieved independence I think the Drummonds of Perth will claim their lands back and continue their traditional battles with the Murrays.
The Macdonalds will resume their wars with the Campbells and invite them back to Glencoe; the Camerons will continue their fights with Nessie, and just about everyone and revert to stealing cattle and sheep; and to boot it all we could start another sectarian war, as in Rangers V Celtic, while the Goudies’ and Hanks’ would be big men in the newly resurrected communities of Drumchapel, Maryhill , the Gorbals and Niddrie – factories with windaes – during their parole from the Bar-L.
And this would continue while the people in the Orkney and Shetland Island decided to separate from Scotland shouting: ‘Dens vår petroleum’, or ‘Its oor oil’.
FOOTNOTE – To new readers of the site #BrianGoldie or Goudie is a Scot from Falkirk and a career con man. He was originally, under the name Goldie, the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Scottish police for frauds on the Royal Bank of Scotland and a car sales company but the warrant expired in the 90s as he had fled to Australia.
In Australia he was jailed for six years for cheating a mining company out of approx. A$400,000.
For a period he boasted that his invention Cleen Bore, or something like that, was used to clean the guns of the US Navy, and he then turned up in Thailand under the name Goudie (a sept of the same Scottish lowland family) and announced that he was a British barrister and Scottish advocate.
He then started to swindle foreigners in expensive legal fees to take law suits out on their behalf (using real but cheap Thai lawyers whom he paid a fraction of his fees).
#BrianGoudie was subsequently sued for posing as a lawyer to commit fraud by Briton John Jepson – who withdrew the case (by agreement with the court) after Goudie handed back his ill-gotten gains. a 6 million baht apartment in Sukhumvit 15, Bangkok. In most countries he would have gone to jail. He is currently on trial in Pattaya for posing as a lawyer to cheat a 76-year-old American woman Barbara Fanelli Miller out of 7.9 million baht and trying to buy himself out of that - but he has hit a snag. He announced recently that he was leaving Thailand on October 16th - Oscar Wilde's birthday - had he still been alive.
Goudie's Brian Boru Page - Outside Invesrness-shire many scots, like the Thais, have probems pronoucning their 'eLs. Baws in this context means testicles I understand. Seems that life-time chance is gone but after deportation he can apply to be transferred to Peterhead Jail.
He is however a vexatious litigant and is suing British journalist Andrew Drummond for libel under the computer crime act for not for anything written but for publishing the pictures above (and others) parodying his claims of being a lawyer and a Captain in the Royal Marines.
Goudie/Goldie currently has an entire episode of ‘Serial Swindlers’ a syndicated television documentary series dedicated to himself ‘Brian Goldie – Scots Swindler). As in the case of the police in Kho Tao Thai Police have not yet cottoned on to his activities.
Photo-shopped pic of Hanks in the furniture restoration business - The Weapon
#DavidHanks is nobody really apart from being the friend and banker for Brian Goudie.
He is from Girvan, Ayrshire, and apart from a history of attempted insurance fraud and running a furniture upholstery franchise, his main claim to fame was as the owner of Masquerades Brothel in Melbourne.
Drummond wrote that he was a former pimp and was sued. Hanks is now suing for being accused of being ‘mafia’ an expression used by the Thai press after his arrest by the Department of Special Investigations in the Thai resort of Pattaya for racketeering, lending money to Russians at 2 per cent per day, or 60 per cent a month.
They are both colleagues of Drew Walter Noyes who with his common law wife is also in court in Pattaya on charges of trying to cheat expatriates..all in all everyday life in Thailand.
**** And people complain I need a sub-editorImage may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Thai police investigating the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on the holiday island of Koh Tao now fear that that they may be a copycat attack of the rape and murder of a Reading University student on the nearby island of Koh Samui.
Police have taken the details of the fishing boats moored off Sairee Beach on the island of Koh Tao, having admitted that both killers were Asian, and are now investigating the possibility that just like in the murder of Katherine Horton, 23, in Koh Samui in January 2006, the two latest victims might have been murdered by fishermen who swam ashore to wait for a foreign victim.
Sue Jones in Bangkok trying to pressure police to find to her daughter's killers
As the mother of law graduate Kirsty Jones, 23, from Brecon, who was raped and murdered in Chiang Mai in August 2000 criticised Thai police for ‘learning nothing’ since the failed investigation of her daughter’s death. In that investigation they concentrated on foreigners and tried to force a confession from a Burmese-Karen tourist guide.
They initially charged the British owner of the Aree guest house Andy Gill with her murder but were forced to release him when the DNA was proved to be Asian. The detective in charge had said that the killer ‘could have bought the sperm from a male prostitute and introduced it to the crime scene.”
The Kirsty Jones crime scene was contaminated as was the crime scene on Sairee Beach by workers for foundations who act as an ambulance service. Some very nasty scenes of crime photographs were published on Thai websites and Facebook pages just as Thai newspapers published photos of Kirsty’s body.
– Thai police have however been comparing the case to that of Horton. In all three cases little information has come from the local community.
While this goes part of the way to explaining why they concerted their investigations on westerners and Burmese migrant labourers, it does not explain why police did not go to check on the fishermen in the first place.
At the time of the brutal murders last Monday morning when Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, and David Miller from Jersey were brutally clubbed and hacked to death, some ten fishing boats were lying offshore. Six of those boats have since left. It has not been stated whether they had all Thai or Thai and part Burmese crews.
Handcuffed - Andy Gill - but he had to be released
But Pol Col Kitthanes Thananunthawisin, chief of the Marine Police Division's sub-division 6 said he had the names of all the boats and they were being recalled.
Police also now say that they have gathered more DNA evidence from another cigarette butt found on a log near the scene while DNA evidence from a double penetration of Hannah shows has thrown up the DNA of two Asians.
They have also found footprints in a local garden where it is believed the hoe was taken from, and have been checking locals. And they have also taken into their possession a piece of wood which may have been a second murder weapon – as all the blood on a garden hoe found near the scene belonged to Hannah.
Thailand’s Deputy Police Chief Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang, said he now believed that Hannah and David could have met and spoke with their killers shortly before the attacks. There is evidence Hannah might have shared a cigarette.
While the Thai police say their investigation has now made positive progress this is of no comfort to Sue Jones who has said on Facebook “I can't believe how these murders are following pretty much the exact same lines as Kirsty's , unbelievable. The Thais have learned nothing!!!”
Prior to police discovering that the killers were Asian she said:
“The DNA found should tell them if the perpetrators are British or Thai. If it turns out to be Thai that really will upset the apple cart as they are back to square one with not a clue which way to turn.
“Sad to say (I’ve) been here before, (I) feel so much for the families involved ,they are at the beginning of what will probably be a very long road.
And she had earlier commented:‘Here we go again, botched investigation, DNA contaminated, red herrings everywhere.... Makes me so mad.”This case has angered me very much,the way it has been handled almost mirrors what happened in my daughters murder back in 2000.
The Thais have learned nothing...,
No sealing off of the crime scene,red herrings,false statements from the BIB,misleading info,first it's a Brit,then an immigrant,back to the Brit.
Thais say they make an arrest very soon,I have heard it all before.
The only reason the Brit in our case was released was DNA didn't match ,and the forensics guy in Chaingmai did narrow down the perpetrator to be southeast Asian.
Once the UK guys got involved the DNA was then sent for familiar testing,which was closely matched to a tour guide,but there is so much interbreeding with Karen tribes it's not as straight forward as it would be in the uk.
If the UK police are to be involved they have to be officially asked,through the proper channels I.e.fco and embassies have to send official letters of request,this can take months.
Have the Thais checked the lads DNA against what was found on Hannah? I feel so sorry for the families,the press print stuff that there is no need to print,graphic details that only hurt even more.
No matter what your kids get up to they are still your kids and no one likes to think of them in a "bad"way.
We were so glad when the pm results come back for our daughter,no drugs or alcohol ,not because she didn't drink or no doubt tried a spiff,but because if she had it would no doubt have been her fault she was raped and murdered.
The Thais don't seem to care that they are failing badly and loss of face over a Thai committing the crime seems more important than actually solving the murders. Personally I don't see this being solved,I hope I am wrong.
I've been trying for 14 years and am no further on......people know,but no one will talk, even for a reward."
There is no evidence of DNA contamination and the Royal Thai Police have sought the assistance of the FBI in getting more exact DNA profiles but apart from the presence of David Miller there are uncanny similarities to the murder of Katherine Horton.
On New Year’s night 2006 Katherine was sitting on the beach in an evening dress outside her chalet when she received a call from her mum and taken a stroll along Lamai Beach in Koh Samui in January 26th as they chatted together when she was attacked.
Her attackers were two Thai fishermen, Bualoi Posit, and Wichai Somkhaoyai, 24, who had spent the earlier part of the evening drinking and watching porn moves and had swum ashore for some action.
After both were arrested and confessed, Somkhaoyai, further confessed he had raped women in the past. It transpired that they had beaten Katherine, raped her, and then threw her into the sea. She was not quite dead when her body entered the sea.
After the attack both men swam back to their fishing boat and boasted to their colleagues. The foreign woman, they said, was ‘roi’ – delicious. (roi is the southern Thai abbreviation of the Thai word aroi).
No-one thought to tell police – but after murder squad detectives arrived from Bangkok.
The slow and haltering beginning of the Thai murder investigation, the most vital time of any investigation, is being blamed on local police, who did not seal off the island, as was reported.
A local western ‘businessman’ said on condition of anonymity. “The local police are capable of little more than extracting fines from foreigners and they are in the palms of the local big families on the island.”
Thai PBS Television claimed today that one of the killers of David Miller and Hannah Witheridge stole Miller shorts after the murders on the holiday island of Koh Tao on Monday. PBS claims that CCTV footage shows a suspicious character running past the camera from the direction of the crime scene. The bodies of Hannah and David were found naked but there is no evidence they had sex. The DNA found in Hannah is of Asian origin.
The current story may not however be as far fetched as it sounds. Miller is likely to have worn, expensive, by Thai standards, clothes bought abroad. A Thai might not throw these away or leave them. It appears the clothes were removed from the bodies by people of Asian origin.
There is no public record of any shorts being left at the scene and police are not currently commenting on this story. But they do say they have evidence which they are not revealing. They did however release CCTV footage of the suspicious character. But it is not possible to come to any conclusions from the clip PBS shown.
'A new lead to the murder probe came as a team of investigators compared closed-circuit TV footage taken from the areas, and uncovered incriminating evidence on one particular individual.
Footage from the resort where Mr David Miller was residing showed him wearing a cream colored boxer shorts as he was walking toward the beach. Comparing that footage to another at allocation nearby which captured the image of an Asian male shows the suspicious individual running pass the CCTV camera (from the direction of the crime scene) wearing the exact same shorts. A blue colored pants that was found by the body of Mr David is now believed to belong to the suspect.
This indicated that he mistakenly grabbed the pants of the victim to wear and left his own at the scene in a hurry as shown in the CCTV showing he ran pass hurriedly.'
Thai police were today holding a man who had been living in a cave in connection with the murders of Britons Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on the Thai island of Koh Tao in an investigation which continues to throw up new controversies. A 28-year-old man, who was reported to police because he was living in a cave in neighbouring Laem Yai on the island of Ko Samui,
He had worked on tour boats to Koh Tao and was acting suspiciously, was questioned overnight by police on the island but he had denied any connection to the murder.
The man, who worked on local speed-boats, was tested for drugs, having been described as a ‘yaa baa’ (methamphetamine) user. Police have also taken DNA samples. It is understand he is being held on drugs charges.
Yesterday police said they were concentrating on a Thai man and a migrant worker as the main suspects.
Had this not been Koh Tao, last night could have been described as ‘unusual’ one.
Scot Sean McAnna, 25, a friend of David Miller’s and a former Glasgow busker said on Facebook that the mafia were trying to kill him and asked Sky News to call him.
He had stated that the killer was the owner of a local bar and then posted a photo of the alleged killer - not the owner of the local bar.
From a rock near where the bodies of David and Hannah were found he also wrote a long message which could have come from Alex Garland’s ‘The Beach’ about a group of backpackers who think they have found paradise but instead found a nightmare.
“ It's not the island I used to know….. But I know Koh Tao will continue to be the paradise island it always was. Especially now.
"I've spoken to girls who are heart-broken about this, but have said that nothing will stop them living the free, island life.
“ And fair play to them, this has been the first westerner's killing in a decade. And will be the last, hopefully.
"It's a life we know and will always attempt to strive for”.
McAnna has since received consular advice. But he is reported to still be frightened. As he has indicated that a local mafia figure was involved this is understandable.
There has always been a fear that if local mafia were involved police would be powerless to do anything. But Thailand's Premier General Prayuth Chan-ocha has promised no cover-up. And even mafia who become high profile have been dealt with in the past - notably on Koh Samui.
His figure of one murder in ten years maybe a romantic fantasy. The last foreigner to be murdered about ten years ago was a confrontational dive resort owner.
But the Samui Archipelago is not exactly positioned in a sea of tranquility as even the Foreign Office points out in its travel advisory.
A short term resident foreigner who had strived for the island life but left Koh Tao somewhat disillusioned and wrote a blog entitled ‘Koh Tao – The Murky Truth’ stating there were several killings..murders.
“After a few weeks on the island, we found out that Koh Tao has a dark underbelly in the form of locally powerful mafia-like families that own many of the businesses and make sure that they get the cream of the profits that tumble into Koh Tao. In the fairly short time we were there, several people were killed - that is, murdered. We even heard the crack of a gunshot on one occasion.
“It seems that on this island you really don't want to say the wrong thing about the family head or sell drugs without their permission. Even people that merely go there and open a shop or cafe that thrives can become a target and, allegedly, new businesses sometimes mysteriously burn down during the night."
And on the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan – the scene for Thailand’s infamous ‘Full Moon’ Parties - an editorial in the Koh Phangan News headed: ‘Koh Phangan – The Island of Natural Born Killers – listing a wide range of people who had been murdered there including foreigners. Plenty reports of murders. No reports of trials except that for the fishermen who murdered and raped Katherine Horton on Koh Samui.
COMMENT: An interesting day ahead for the boys from London particulary if they have printed out the photo McAnna put on Facebook which features two southern Thai gentlemen with typical 'nak reng' (strongman) moustaches and start asking: "Did you do it?" Police do not appear to be lukewarm yet.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Thai Police investigating the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller on the island of Koh Tao announced a breakthrough in the murder hunt today today as they questioned the brother of a local island politician - and sought the son of another. But they denied any mafia link and stressed they had not brought charges. Police General Panya Mamen, Head of the Thai Police, Southern Region said:
“We expect a result within 48 hours as DNA samples have been sent off for testing but we are confident in this latest turn in the investigation.”
He said detectives had already discovered a connection between the men and the hoe used in the attack on Hannah. David Miller, he confirmed, had been attacked with another weapon.
Suspect (Montrivet Toovichien) the manager of the AC Club on Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, and brother of a local head man presented himself for investigation. He was later released. . The second suspect is allegedly the son of a village headman in Koh Tao. He is believed to have fled to Bangkok.
Police said the men are believed to have been in a bar and involved or watching a confrontation involving the British woman (Hannah) and followed the tourists as they left.
Police had also re-interviewed other staff from the AC club.
Sean McAnna,26, from Shotts, Lanarkshire, gave interviews yesterday described how he was chased out of the AC bar on Sairee beach Koh Samui after being accused of being the murderer.
“They just said to me, ‘It was you who killed them. You’ve got two people’s deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You’re going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang. You die tonight’.
“So I just ran. I just left and ran.”
“I genuinely thought that I was going to die. I genuinely thought that this was me dead.“They wouldn’t have shot me, they would have taken me up into the hills to hang me and make it look like it was a suicide.
“I was so scared. I just didn’t want that to be it. I told my mum I loved her and that I would try to make it home
He has since fled allegedly to be with his girlfriend in Milan, Italy, but may be in a secure area.
But police secured a warrant and today searched the AC bar, from where he had been chased. after securing a warrant.
Today the Daily Record revealed that McAnna, a musician and busker, was found guilty last year at Hamilton Sheriff Court of possessing indecent images of children and sentenced to a 170 hour community payback order. But today it looks like he stirred a hornet's nest.
Police General Police General Somyot Phumphanmuang , adviser to the Royal Thai Police brushed off mafia stories saying: “If there are mafias local people would have told the police about it.” But village headmen in Thailand are traditionally the local mafia bosses, the most famous of all Kanman Pok in the Thai province of, Bang Saen, Chonburi was convicted of murder years ago, and hardly spent a day in prison. But the General added that Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha called him everyday to check progress in the investigation.
Thailand's military ruler has said he is determined to root our corruption in the Thai police force.
So far police suspects have included, a jealous gay lover, friends of David Miller, speed boat operators, Burmese migrants, Sean McAnna 'the guitar man', and three running men caught on video, one allegedly wearing Miller's shorts, and one wearing only underpants.
If the current suspects are charged it leaves police to explain why for seven days they did not investigate properly what happened at the AC Club before Hannah and David left. In normal circumstances it should have been the starting point for an investigation. Further why did police let Hannah's friends go so quickly?
* Footnote: It appears that of the two men with whom Sean McAnna argued, one may have been an undercover police officer and the second a member of staff of the AC bar.
While Thai police are still pursuing the killers of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller and dismissing mafia allegations someone has had the bad taste to put this notice up on the internet. It is allegedly a sign put up in a bar in Koh Tao which I will not name playing on a well known cocktail.
It is hard to think of anything more tasteless referring to a young British woman who was brutally raped and murdered on Sairee beach on the island nine days ago.
Unless someone can show Hannah went to the beach to be raped by two local men then why put this sign up. It's not as anyone in Koh Tao needs to be told anymore that it an be dangerous walking on the beach there at night.
But forget about the bar for a minute. This has been doing the rounds of young Thai nationals on Facebook.
It would be easy to dismiss this purely as joke by internet trolls – but closer examination of those who ‘like’ this picture, shows that several have posted from Koh Tao and several appear to be, or have been working there in the tourism industry.
Included in the ‘likes’ are three other local djs and a resort owner.
The original poster from Bangkok appears to have been a DJ at the AC bar judging by the other photographs on his Facebook page. He is not the only dj commenting.
The AC bar is of course the last night spot that Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, and David Miller, 24, from Jersey were seen alive.
On September 15th both were found beaten to death, Hannah by a garden hoe, and David by some sort of club. Hannah was raped by two men whose DNA is Asian
Posting of this joke is up there alongside the person (possibly in uniform) who posted nasty pictures of the bodies of the two British victims.
Sex or not, however, foreigners, particularly single women, should know that it is not safe to walk alone in the dark, whether on a beach or not in Thailand. In 2006 Katherine Horton ,23, from Cardiff was brutally murdered and raped on Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, while talking to her mother on the phone. And the killers told their mates how 'delicious' she was.
'
No DJ Spicy Fx who answered '5555 - meaning Ha Ha Ha. It was not funny.
Its been business on the island since the murders and foreigners continue to arrivc to enjoy Koh Tao's life style. The picture above shows Hannah out on a pub crawl on September 12, they day she arrived with her three friends.
The picture below shows people on the same pub crawl in Sairee Beach on September 15th 18 hours after the bodies of Hannah and David were found.
The party goes on - meanwhile the answer from a bar in Koh Tao is that the poster was a warning to foreigners (see below)
------------------------
Two men questioned by police yesterday over the murders have been cleared of any involvement in the killings, but police are still trying to trace the son of a village head man from Bang Tao who left the island believed to have fled to Bangkok.
The men who included the manager of the AC Club Montrivet Toovichien are understood to have been able to help police but they had no connection with themselves to the murder.
Montrivet had followed Sean McAnna to a convenience store earlier this week after a discussion in the AC bar because he was suspicious of McAnna's explanation of where he was on the night in question.
He is reported to have said that he needs to get on with his work now and keep tourists happy and to continue to enjoy their holidays.
In what is believed to be in reference to a story the top story a quote attributed to the bar in question states: "The warning in the photography - we would say it with many things with care of our customer. Sometime(s) they sex everywhere on the beach on the boat or in the water. There is not the safe place to have sex while drunk."
It has has never been established that Hannah and David Miller had sex on the beach.
A former Irish taxi driver who walked out of a Thai jail on bail for brutally stabbing to death a Pattaya bar girl has surrendered to police in Dublin in connection with the multiple stabbing of an Irish woman who was on her way to work at a children’s crèche. Denis Leahy, 48, handed himself in to the ‘Garda’ at Mountjoy Police station yesterday. The Irish Press who has not named Leahy reported that he had paid 30,000 Euros (1.24 million baht) in bail money to get released from a Thai jail in 2007 where he faced charges of brutally stabbing a prostitute in Pattaya.
Its alleged he had asked for bondage services.
After the stabbing Leahy fled towards Cambodia in a taxi – but the driver was suspicious and reported him to police.
A Garda spokesman said his latest victim was known to the suspect.
A former member of the Irish Defence Force Leahy was arrested in Pattaya in November 2006 19 hours after the body of Bupha Tanyachiangphin ,24, was discovered in his apartment near Pattaya's Jomtien Beach.
Her hands were tied behind her back, before she was stabbed 22 times in the back, chest and throat, police reported. Its alleged both a knife and a hammer were used in the attack.
He got out of bail in April 2007. At the time the Irish Star newspaper stated: “A family friend yesterday said: 'Some of his family were determined to get him out and raised a lot of money by calling on all their friends, including a Dublin publican.
'They must have greased the right palms in Thailand because their plan worked.'
Businessman and local police - by Sean McAnna who thought they were mafia
The son of a Thai person of influence on the Thai holiday island of Koh Tao has denied he was on the run from Thai police today as Thailand’s military ruler deployed his own team to shake up a murder investigated rife with controversy. The 22-year-old man told the ‘Kom Chat Leuk’ newspaper that he was in Bangkok to study at university and he had many witnesses and also CCTV to prove where he was at the time Britons Hannah Witheridge, 23, and David Miller, were hacked to death on the small island in the Gulf of Thailand.
“I am not afraid,” the 22-year-old said: ‘I have done nothing wrong.”
His statement came after more claims made by police were reported in the Thai and foreign press promising police would solve the case within 48 hours and announcing they were looking for the son of a village head man who had gone to Bangkok.
Meanwhile Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-Ocha says he has ordered a crackdown on ‘influential rackets’ and ‘illegitimate businesses’ on Koh Tao. His men were there already and he was sending down a team of his own, he said.
‘Assigning soldiers might seem a bit draconian,” he told the Nation newspaper in Bangkok, ‘But this is the right time now.”
Commenting on reports that Koh Tao was ruled by mafia families with intimidatory tactics and violence, Bangkok’s Deputy Police Chief Somyot Pumpanmuang however said there were ‘definitely no such influential groups.”
This however flies in the face of island tradition. A New Zealand long stay resident on Koh Tao, who has now left, has gone on the net to give a potted history of the island’s violent incidents.
However ‘Mike E’ said the island was comparatively safe because the island’s strongmen, not police made it that way. The police’s main occupation was to collect money from drugs and motor-bike rental scams. They rarely arrested people as it was better and easier to get the cash from tourists.
The island strongmen did however feud among each other and in 2002 Virat Asavachin, 42, chairman of Koh Tao’s Administrative Association, was shot six times near Sairee Beach by a lone gunman in a woolen balaclava. Nobody was convicted of his murder.
Referring to Sean McAnna, from Shotts, Lanarkshire, who fled the AC bar on Sairee Beach fearing he would be lynched Mike E says: “I think had Sean not made his outburst that he probably would have ended up either dead, or blamed for the whole situation. I have absolutely zero faith in the Thai justice system or any island police officers ability to do their job.”
The Bangkok Post is today reporting that police were at Lotus Bar where ‘Mr. McAnna was allegedly seen asking some staff to help wipe bloodstains off his body before he fled the island’. There may be nothing significant in this.
Police have already interviewed the foreigners, and Burmese immigrants and failed to find the culprits. As has become quite clear they have left all the Thai businessmen, bar and resort owners, to the end.
The Foreign Press corps has in the main put away its buckets and spades and stopped digging on the island of Koh Tao..A smattering remains.
I say 'stopped digging' but there was not much digging to do – not with the western population scared to open their mouths – and even told not to on their community Facebook page - and the indigenous Thais who are able to talk blaming the horrendous crime on anyone but themselves.
The Daily Mail and the BBC's Jonathan Head are holding out.
By tradition the man from the Mail is always the last to leave.
Nine days after the badly beaten bodies of Hannah Witheridge and David Wilson were found on Sairee Beach the Thai police are on the defensive – and an influential island family boss has held a press conference.
Woraphan Tuvichian has offered a million baht (£20,000) if someone who can prove a member of his family were involved. He has instructed his lawyers to sue the newspapers for libel.
“The media coverage has ruined my reputation. I have friends and people from a number of organisations calling me up to inquire on the coverage. Everyone’s wondering of (about) these accusations. This continues to be a really bad experience for me and my family”.
Private Eye’s ‘Glenda Slagg’ would have had a field day.
Of course one has to feel sympathy for wrongly accused people but newspapers are not the source of the accusations which only referred to suspects. And while members of his family have been identified as possible suspects, they have now been repeatedly publicly exonerated – much more than say, some Burmese migrant workers...or Scot Sean McSAnna - but more of that later.
More to the point Woraphan Tuvichien is seemingly totally oblivious to the westerners who were accused, and of course to the Burmese migrant workers. Not only were the Burmese accused of being the prime suspects but they were beaten by police according to reports reaching here and already published in Irrawaddy Online; proof again it seems of the treatment of Burmese in Thailand – the subject of other libel cases on the go being defended by human rights activist Andy Hall.
So now let’s see how the investigation is going, well, er at least the Thai media one.
This from Thai PBS television’s website. The Tuvichiens are clearly so upset with Sean McAnna who fled their AC disco pub in terror, that he appears to be now the main suspect. This may be because, as Wataphan pointed out “He portrayed our family as mafia."
''I'M OFFSKI!' McAnna leaving town - just in time it seems.
PBS
“Mr. Woraphan admitted that he did have a word with Sean as he suspected that he may have been involved with the murder.
(Ah then it is your duty as one of the community leaders to get to the truth Mr. Woraphan)
PBS
Mr. Woraphan said on the night of the murder, one of his employees identified as Jok saw so much blood on the face and body of Mr. Sean, so he helped to wash it out for him.
(Er, did not Jok ask Sean if he had murdered and raped a couple of westerners, or indeed how he had blood on his face?)
PBS
Later he found out that Mr. Sean looked very close to a suspect on the CCTV footage, he then asked Sean about the blood and was told that it was caused by accident.
(Oh he did, but only only thought about it later, after he had seen the CCTV. Was he murdering someone on CCTV or walking down the street? And when exactly was Sean identified on CCTV? Come to think of it - who has been identified on CCTV? - and when was he wiping off blood - at 4.30 am?)
PBS
He also said as the DNA testing revealed later the DNA samples in the female victim’s body belonged to Asian men, forcing his employee to be reluctant to give further information to the police as they thought Sean was not involved.
(But of course he did not mention this to police because they never asked. Several days after the murders police were too busy with Burmese immigrant and foreigners that they still had not called in the village heads and their employees for interrogation. His employer is one of the island leaders. Why would he not tell the police? So what changed their minds?)
PBS
Besides, as Mr. Sean was not captured in the CCTV footage, and the police probe was going astray, he chose to stay put, he said.
(Yes that first thing you said about the CCTV does not ring very true does it?)
Meanwhile, a claim by Sean that he went hiding in a convenience store on the island fearing for manhunt by his so-called mafias was also partially true, was taken seriously by a TV Station.A check by television channel staff on the CCTV footage at the 7-Eleven store showed he did enter the store but with no sign of fear as he claimed.
(Partially true? This one takes the biscuit. Yes it’s true Sean McAnna went into the convenience story because McAnna photographed his adversaries from behind a counter. (And Montrivet Tuvichian has admitted following Sean to the convenience store). But the CCTV file shows he has no sign of fear? Now I have had trouble identifying a face let alone what was one the guy’s mind viewing the CCTV files so far. Are you kidding me?)
So there you have it. It is quite clear that despite their findings that the DNA of the killers is Asian, people can still find a way to stick this on a foreigner.
DEJA VUE
But where have I heard this before? Yes in Chiang Mai when police were investigating the yet to be solved murder and rape of Kirsty Jones, 23, from Brecon, they tortured a Karen (Burmese) tourist guide with even more vigour than the cops are alleged to have done on Koh Tao with their migrant population.
Narong telling his story - but local press would not publish before international press. "It was not me - now my privates ache".
Narong Pojanathamrongpongse a tourist guide was essentially kidnapped off the street by men in black, taken to a private house and tortured.
This included beating and police attacks on his testicles as they only know how. He was told to confess to save the image of Thailand and ordered to masturbate. When he refused a policeman tried but failed to do it for him. Yes, I know this conjures up an unbelievable image.
When that was revealed police continued their pursuit of foreigners.
They had already accused an Australian called Nathan Foley and had him trample all over the crime scene and they had banged up a New Zealander Stuart Chrichton – though they had caught him with a small amount of drugs.
Then they banged up the owner of the guest house Andy Gill, then 32, and his manager, a guy called Surin, who, would you believe in his previous life as a monk used to hit on foreign women.
Anyway neither matched the DNA which was of course Asian, and for want of repeating myself that did not seem to matter too much to the original Chief Of Detectives, because he proudly announced that the murderer could have easily slipped into town and bought some sperm off a ladyboy.
Of course if a westerner did that wouldn’t the ladyboy remember? I’m sure I would I some stranger came up to me in the street and asked me for a sample. I think I'd have a plaque made to commemorate the occasion.
It actually took Dyfed-Powys Police officers in Wales and the Home Office laboratory to get a complete profile of Kirsty’s killer. But Thai police could not find a match…and still cannot.
What is interesting though however is the Royal Thai Police’s attitude to forensic investigation.
Twenty years on they are still asking foreign police forces to do DNA testing. Results here in short are not so precise but enough to eliminate people. Yet there is a well-equipped but rarely used police lab in Bangkok (so foreign police told me but this was a while ago).
Bad? No that’s good. Serious forensic work is out of the control of the police as it should be. If it were in their hands they could introduce DNA into the crime scene at will.
If Sean McAnna fits the profile – he will of course be examined by British police – and be extradited. Does not sound like the current frame-up by innuendo will warrant it though.
But of course the attack now on Sean McAnna is likely to be a deliberate 'red herring' just as in the first place people connected to the island bosses were putting out stories that murderer was a jealous gay boyfriend of David Miller, and all the other stories.
Information has been coming into my office. It is very possible someone may talk to the military off island , if they have assurances of absolute protection.
'It was not me' - Nathan Foley who was filmed as suspect in the murder of Kirsty Jones - This photo was taken in the room where it happened - and forensics had not even started.
Thai sourced allegations continue to come into my office. They continue to refer to local families. Andy Lines, a reporter for the Daily Mirror penned his last story from the island this week. He referred to a mafia style 'Omerta' code of silence. I am afraid he is bang on.
It is quite possible that the very people who leads tourist on with bonhomie and exhortations to 'enjoy' are the very people to be careful of.
And in my view there is every likelihood that a lot of people knew who the killers were from the very first day. Only the military can break the 'code of silence'.
Insensitive locals linked to tourism on the Thai holiday island of Phuket are continuing to post questionable pictures on the social media which might make foreigners ill at ease and are open to misconception. One particular man about town has posted a picture of himself holding a garden hoe, identical to the weapon that was used to kill Hanna Witheridge, with the caption: ‘If you come late expect trouble from me.”
He also posts another picture taken of Sean McAnna at the local Sairee Beach transvestites show the Queen’s Cabarat, dressed in women’s underwear with the caption: ‘ Are you good or evil? Why did you drag our island down?’
The author is trying to be funny but has a nasty streak. Men dressing up as women is party of the Koh Tao Pub Crawl routine - a sort of Thai Club 18-30.
The Koh Tao Pub Crawl is an organised binge drinking tour which operates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. For a fixed fee punters get a free T-shirt, discount coupons, and free buckets of booze.
In fact Hannah Witheridge and her three friends had signed up for the Koh Tao Pub Crawl on September 12th when, as usual, more than a few locals tagged along as well.
The pub crawl starts from Choppers bar - the last bar Hannah Witheridge and David Miller were pictured in before their murder.
Other pictures show the poster selling chicken wrapped in banana leaves to sell and on boat tours with foreigners.
A local source describe the poster as a ‘jack of all trades’ who had helped boat operators, and rented ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) to tourists and fixed motorbikes. His friends include the island's disco jockeys.
It seems clear from the post that McAnna, 28, from Shotts, Lanarkshire, was right to get off the island in a hurry after posting pictures of two Thais who he said accused him of being the murderer and who followed him out of a bar to a local convenience store.
Men dressing up as women actually is part of Pub Crawl routine -
“They just said to me, ‘It was you who killed them. You’ve got two people’s deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You’re going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang.
'You die tonight’.
“So I just ran. I just left and ran.”
“I genuinely thought that I was going to die. I genuinely thought that this was me dead. “They wouldn’t have shot me, they would have taken me up into the hills to hang me and make it look like it was a suicide.
“I was so scared. I just didn’t want that to be it. I told my mum I loved her and that I would try to make it home."
Of the two men involved once has been reported to have been cleared by DNA – and the second was a policeman. Police have denied there are mafia groups on the island.
The focus in the Thai media has now turned to McAnna, who it is alleged was covered in blood at the time of the alleged murder – and police have been investigating in the Lotus Bar on the island where this incident was actually reported and staff allegedly helped him clean himself up.
The killers’ DNA is Asian. But that does not seem to have stopped police enquiries also focusing on Sean McAnna.
The latest pictures indicate a sub-culture on Koh Tao of local
Chris Hobbs studies his case with Sudarat Sereewat of the FACE Foundation (Fight Against Child Exploitation) at the hq of www.andrew-drummond.com
A perfectly respectable American electrical engineer who was framed in Thailand on paedophile charges has been acquitted of all crimes and asked to return to pick up his bail.
Christopher Hobbs, who has since lost his job with a Japanese multinational company sub-contracting to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), and who could have been jailed for 42 years, was told the news today.
At a meeting with the Superintendent of Pattaya Police and the Chief of Thai Police Region 2 Woman and Children’s Protection Unit Hobbs was given an apology. The plight of Mr. Hobbs was exposed on this site.
In a major failure of the justice system Hobbs was accused of abusing two under-aged boys in Pattaya after being mistaken for American Steven Strike, an American wanted for child abuse in Maui, Hawaii. He faced six charges of child abuse. Not one had any substance.
Hobbs had leased an apartment and formed a company in Pattaya as an investment to sell fruit juice using special juice making machines.
Although his name was on the lease of the premises and the company car was in his name, he did not himself take part in the business and has no cause to visit it from his home in Bangkok apart from to check accounts.
The juice company had its address in Mid-Town Villas in Pattaya and Hobbs’ partner rented the spare rooms above the business. One of those rooms was rented by Steve Strike.
Two boys from local children’s home identified Hobbs as their molester. But there were clear breaches of identification procedure. Those breaches were compounded by the actions of US FBI agents who were waiting at Banglamuang Police station after Hobbs’ arrest.
The US agents did not tell their Thai counterparts that at the time of the alleged offences Steve Strike was renting a room in the building. Nor did they tell the investigating officers that Steve Strike was arrested there by Thai Immigration Police and handed to the US authorities at the request of the Federal Marshall Maui Fugitive Task Force.
Further, even when Hobbs begged the US agents concerned – one of whom Randall Devine was a high profile ‘expert’ on child abuse crime with his own LA based internet TV programme - to tell the Thai police about Strike – they all kept shtum
Devine, who was in Thailand for Hobbs' arrest not only kept quiet but, it is alleged, suggested Hobbs was Strike’s roommate.
Two other agents involved were based at the US Embassy in Bangkok.
It is expected now, having re-interviewed the victims and reviewed their investigation that Thai Police will charge Steve Strike, and hand the prosecution over to the prosecutor in Maui, where Strike is now detained pending trial on other abuses.
Christopher Hobbs said today: “I am relieved it’s all over. It’s too late to get my job back though. And my name is all over the internet as a paedophile so what future do I have.
“Had these FBI officers acted in the same way in the United States they would be in jail by now. They should go to jail. They have stolen my life.”
Hobbs said he understands that the Thai Police would be making a statement on the matter shortly.
Australia’s Memorandum of Understanding with Cambodia to take refugees from the Pacific island of Nauru is coming under more and flak in the worldwide media. Already described as a new low in Australia’s deplorable treatment of asylum seekers by Amnesty International it seem that in any case none of the refugees incarcerated in the appalling detention centre in Nauru will go to Cambodia anyway.
Australia has announced that only volunteers will go to Cambodia and has promised the Hun Sen government some AS40 million in benefits. Nobody seems to have asked the asylum seekers beforehand and the Guardian reports that that none can be found.
No surprises there. Not sure what happened to Australia’s Forward Planning Office on this one.
A new low in Australia’s deplorable and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers has been reached with a deal to apparently ship refugees to Cambodia, where respect for their human rights cannot be guaranteed, said Amnesty International. An agreement between the Australian and Cambodian governments to relocate refugees to the South-East Asian state is to be signed tomorrow, 26 September, in Phnom Penh by Cambodia’s Minister of Interior and Australia’s Minister of Immigration and Border Protection. “This agreement is putting the short-term political interests of the Australian government ahead of the protection of some of the world's most vulnerable people – refugees,” said Rupert Abbott, Deputy Asia-Pacific Director at Amnesty International. “It makes Cambodia complicit in Australia’s human rights breaches and seriously flawed offshore processing system.” The lack of transparency over the terms of the agreement has been a major cause of concern in both countries. There has been no opportunity for civil society to contribute to discussions or to formally raise objections on the basis of international human rights standards. Amnesty International and other international rights groups have questioned Cambodia’s suitability as a host country for refugees relocated by Australia. The human rights situation in the country is troubling. There has been a marked deterioration of respect for freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including a violent crackdown by security forces on striking workers and activists in January, while forced evictions, land disputes and land grabbing affect thousands of people. “In January the Australian Government condemned Cambodia's human rights record at a UN human rights hearing, but will now relocate vulnerable refugees, possibly including children, to the country,” said Rupert Abbott. Providing appropriate services to ensure successful settlement of refugees requires considerable expertise and a coordinated approach for the various services required, especially for children. Amnesty International cannot envisage how this will be possible given the lack of required services in Cambodia.
Background
Many of the refugees who will apparently be relocated as part of the agreement between Cambodia and Australia have already been held unlawfully in harsh, humiliating conditions in Australia’s offshore detention centres. Amnesty International has documented how asylum seekers offshore have been subjected to a host of human rights violations and abuses, including violent assault, as they wait in legal limbo. Ultimately, the international refugee protection system obliges Australia to allow these individuals to obtain international protection in Australia.
DREW NOYES MAKES VOLUPTUOUS RUSSIAN MODEL'S DREAM COME TRUE - BUT IT WAS FAKED!
American Drew Noyes, currently on trial in Pattaya in an extortion case, has pulled another fast one to drive business to his ailing One-Stop-Service Center in the Thai resort of Pattaya. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The ever desperate American, who started up by falsely claiming to be a lawyer, then ripping of a promotion for the Thai government’s One-Start-One-Stop Service Centre – pretending he was associated with it – is now trying to lure punters to his business by showing a sexy girl in a bikini as one of his ‘satisfied’ customers.
“Our client dreamed to get away from cold winters and high taxes in Sweden. We were glad to help her dream come true! Now she is wealthy from her online business we helped establish in Thailand and spends her time during the day on her yacht. Best of all, she pays almost no taxes, legally!" Contact One Stop Legal Services in Pattaya Thailand to join her success,” writes Noyes on his Facebook page and on another Facebook page of his called ‘Hire Best Pattaya Lawyers in Thailand”.
This girl is Swedish? Has an online business? Owns a yacht?
No this is of course another fantasy from #DrewWalterNoyes, who was exposed by the Morning Star in North Carolina before coming to Thailand, he says by Royal Appointment, to work for the Bank of Thailand and save the country from the Asian economic crisis of the late 90s.
#DrewNoyes last appeared in court in Pattaya on September 23rd and September 24 on a charge with his ‘wife’ Wanrapa Boonsu of attempting to extort the Thonglor Clinic in Jomtien out of 7 million baht – later reduced to 2.3 million – on pain of a police raid on the premises – where presumably something illegal would be found and he would get a bad write up in Noyes’ now defunct the Pattaya Times.
So who is this girl – well for starters she Russian. If she has an online business, according to one website, it must be for ‘personal services’. She does not have her own yacht and she pays no taxes in Pattaya because she has no business there. The Russian tax rate is 13 per cent but then again Noyes has businesses and does not pay taxes either.
Take your pick - this girl is all over the net. Her likes 'interested in males' and she listens to Michael Jackson, Beyonce and Kayushka
In fact this picture has appeared on scores of websites and is available to any lonely old American who wants to salivate in the early hours and google 'Chicks you want'.
The only truth in his claims was that business is falling off with Chinese, Russian and Korean tourists, replacing English speaking westerners, who are more gullible.
The funny thing about Noyes latest Facebook forays is that they were liked by David Watson, the famous UK Independence Party candidate from Basingstoke, Hants,
Watson left during the last election and was in Thailand to hear he had come in second. He has settled with his last Thai wife and is now back in Pattaya with a new love. Hie is in Pattaya because, I presume, he does not like being outnumbered by foreigners.
For legal assistance avoid things like pattayalegalservices.com., pattayalawyers.com, onestoplegalservices,com, drewnoyespattayalawyer, drewnoyes,com, pappalaw.com etc.
Above Katyushka - traditional version - Below the new dance version
The authorities in Croatia, who are discussing a port and logistics facilities of which Sparta-Matrix holds 55 per cent of the holding company Miklavja LC, have given the so called boss Philip Wainwright some 45 days to come up with a plan and some 750,000 Euros.
They believe if he does that the whole plan, which will of course cost millions more, will be saved and the port will be saved. There appears to be some sort of language barrier. Well the city of Matulji is a small place but wants to be put on the map. A port facility at nearby Rijeka would save it.
And Sparta Matrix has put in some US$2 million already telling investors it has high tec logistics, and freight tracking solutions but works out of a series of serviced offices. The problem is that this is not a US$2million project.
Miklavja, 55 per cent owned by Wainwright, is due to go into bankruptcy. Hence investors, grannies and grandpas from all over Europe, including the UK, stand to get nothing. He continues to talk from the hip saying that he will save the company and bring the cash.
But Philip Wainwright has only been to Croatia a couple of times, one time for a photo call with the Prime Minister and of course Wainwright is not in the business of saving companies – he is in the business for taking people’s cash on duff projects – and what's more duffer than one you can control yourself!
The longer he delays on this project and keeps the city's hopes up - the more cash he can bring in.
I am now in direct touch with people on the ground in Matulji and other Europeans know exactly what is going on.
But this is a classic example of not telling the King he is dressed in his birthday suit.
The bankruptcy officer Vesna Pindulic appears to have her head in the clouds and her English is limited, as is that of most of the people. It appears she wants to give Sparta Matrix time to pay.
Meanwhile Wainwright is telling investors that his company owns the land for this development and he wants them to invest more – to clear local legal actions.
Meanwhile the money for Sparta-Matrix – a company created by boiler room operators – is being raised by pimply faced youths and their ‘loaders’ in various boiler rooms across Asia.
SpartaMatrix is only putting in cash, and then not real amounts, when the whining gets too shrill, but most of course goes into its own pockets. The thought of these guys running port facilities …….!
A news blackout has been put in place by Police Region 8 which covers South Thailand and the islands, including Koh Tao. Statements can now only be issued at the regional headquarters in Surat Thani – and from the office of the Tourist Police.
