sprq

Several posters have made comments like "people forget, news fades away" but I never expected it so soon. I've just checked out the online Nation and Bangkok Post and could not find any reference at all to this murder in today's editions.

One day later it's forgotten?? Or do the print editions contain something?

Latest Daily Telegraph, London, report -- new twist: kidnap attempt

Backpackers shot dead in Thailand

By Richard Savill and Nick Britten

(Filed: 10/09/2004)

A young British couple on a backpacking holiday in Thailand were shot dead yesterday in what witnesses said was an attempted kidnap by an off-duty policeman.

Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 24, were murdered as they left a restaurant in the tourist resort of Kanchanaburi, on the River Kwai.

Witnesses said Mr Lloyd had been arguing. The policeman intervened, then followed the couple in a car and opened fire.

Mr Lloyd was hit twice in the back, they claimed, before Miss Arscott was run down as she fled. She was then shot three times at close range with a 9mm pistol as she lay in the road.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of Staff Sgt Somchai Wisetsingh, 39, who owns the S & S restaurant where Mr Lloyd and Miss Arscott were eating two days before their planned return to Britain.

Police said at first that the couple, from Devon, became involved in a noisy argument at the small floating restaurant and Somchai had tried to mediate before he was embroiled in the row.

But a Thai police official said later that Somchai had forced Miss Arscott into his car and shot Mr Lloyd when he attempted to rescue her.

"He forced open the door of the car and tried to hit at Somchai and grab the keys," said the official.

"Somchai pulled out his gun as Vanessa ran off down the road.

"He first shot Mark and then drove his car off after Vanessa running her down. Then he shot her with two bullets." Somchai's bloodstained Volvo 460 has been impounded at Kanchanaburi police station.

Col Vej Somboon, of Kanchanaburi police, said: "We hope to get him soon. The witnesses and evidence show that he is the man who gunned down the British tourists."

Capt Chavalit Biewkaow, the case officer, said: "This is not a good matter for Thailand. Somchai was a mild man and good officer. It is hard to believe he has done this."

Miss Arscott's parents, Graham and Joyce, and her sister Alyssa were said last night to be "distraught" after hearing the news of the killings at their home in Holne Cross, near Ashburton, on the edge of Dartmoor.

Mr Lloyd's mother, Linda, runs the Buckingham Lodge hotel, in Torquay, with her husband, Brian.

Adam's three brothers, one of whom is a policeman in London, were travelling to Torquay last night.

Thai Airforce 21 Picture

Its a beautiful plane, Airbus A319 Corporate Jet.  It belongs to the RTAF , not the PM.  What is all the fuss about ?

Thai flag on the tail fin but no RTAF markings - indicates CIVIL registration

What's the odds he takes it as a "loyalty bonus" when he leaves office?

Especially if he does as planned ..... win next election and retire in 2006

In the photo you can clearly see a civil registration number beginning HS-. All civil aircraft in Thailand have such registration numbers, HS- being Thailand's code issued by the international aviation authorities. Military aircraft have their own registration numbering systems which are entirely up to the country itself to apply, but they are always completely different from the civil system.

I nominate Thaksin for first Thaistronaut, to explore the universe, right now. That should keep him quiet for quite a while.

I second Astral. I have used Aviva for several years. Their policy also covers things you take out of the house like cameras, so it's a travel insurance for belongings too.

Now I switch to English teacher mode (British): the machine is spelled 'meter'; the distance is spelled 'metre'; the vehicle is a meter taxi, not a taxi-meter; the machine inside is the taxi-meter. Few will take any notice of this, most journalists will carry on cocking the whole terminology up, but I feel better for saying it.

Since we are on the subjects of rudeness and anal retentiveness, do they instruct English teachers (British) to always hyphenate the words taxi meter, thus creating an adjective where a noun should be?

Gibberish!

Boon Mee, that's a joke, of course, isn't it? I mean, there can't still in this day and age be Americans that stupid, can there?

But then a destructive moron is president and half the US population doesn't seem to mind, indeed, quite a lot of them love him, so I suppose you could be real, Boon Mee, god help us.

Agree with all of the above. I would take a lot more short taxi trips if the fare began at 25 baht, and the poor taxi driver would gain overall. Having experienced the rip-off artists of the 80s and early 90s, who would regularly insist on 150 baht fares for 8km rides in the rush hour or the rain, or other times if they could get away with it, I sympathise with all these guys who now have to accept a low regulated fare structure fixed ten years ago.

Now I switch to English teacher mode (British): the machine is spelled 'meter'; the distance is spelled 'metre'; the vehicle is a meter taxi, not a taxi-meter; the machine inside is the taxi-meter. Few will take any notice of this, most journalists will carry on cocking the whole terminology up, but I feel better for saying it.