SparklingCascades

Reading several of the posts above, under this news item one thing becomes clear - Thailand has no shortage of pedophiles and these deviants can rationalise away to explain sick behavior. Some are on tourist visas and others on retirement visas. Am not surprised by this incident. After sunset in that seedy spot called Pattaya (along Beach Rd between Central Rd to Soi 13/2) a common sight is farang grandpa's pushing a stroller with one hand whilst massaging the bottom of a tiny teen with the other hand. If police want to get rich then Beach Rd in that seedy town (and Sunee Plaza) offer rich pickings. Regular spot checks of IDs may help - but this rarely happens given Thai police own many of the bars (and often the people) offering services. Whatever the local corruption or stories of innocence or the rationale......... once a person is caught in the act they must pay the heavy price which comes from this sordid behavior.

Pedophiles in full view down at Sunee Plaza or on Beach Rd don't leave much to the imagination. One has to be very drugged or cock-eyed or a pedophile not to suspect some "traffic flows".....and yes, all farangs into little kids think the girls are above 18. After all pedophilia is a thought pattern which lingers long after castration, as experts say. Hence the long jail terms and a life of hell when caught with ones fingers in the cookie jar.

Will never understand farang. The big crime here is paying for something so freely available on tap in that place called Pattaya - albeit once you've glimpsed an ID. Being fooled by big fruit on small trees can prove fatal.

You carn't afford to go home, you have nothing to go home for in fact you now regard Thailand as your home.

A couple of possibilities are working in The Timeshare industry or some Bangkok boiler room.

Any other possibilities.

Meet rich girl, win the lottery, the list is endless!

The list seems limited in Thailand to busking, preaching and teaching at the moment.....

I'm sure many wish they had the foresight to invest in a bar and live the dream eternally

Some points raised that we are masters of our own ship and destiny, but what if the fickle finger of fate strikes you and you are indeed on the bones of your arse with no fallback. Would that not hit you the hardest of all?

U keep saying "with no fallback". U do have a fallback ie: make hard choices, starting with getting help in yr home country. Thailand is no place for penniless & painful farang. Our visa's are for people with a bank balance or a connect into a Thai family with a bank balance. So stop whining and man up to things. idjut

quote - "Both men tried to grab the gun, and during their struggle the gun automatically shot by itself twice. Mr. Thomas was shot in the neck, and was severely injured and bleeding heavily" Am always amazed at guns which go off "automatically" when handled by a Thai or mysterious moto-drivers which cause Thai people to have violent road accidents. This is a land of mystery & ghosts if one were to believe stories associated with the high crime & accident rates in Thailand. Truly amazing.....and very anal, to boot !!

So why is the farang carrying the gun in the first place!!! At least the Thai man waited for the police. Give the Thai a break!!!!!

..... "during their struggle the gun automatically shot by itself twice". Must be some vengeful spirit which accidentally fired twice not once. Give us all a break !

When guns go off with pre-meditated drama one knows your reading of America. When guns go off mysteriously one knows your reading about a Thai.

Skype and Instant Messenger ! Whom is he trying to reach.....the rice farmers?

The only crime here is paying for what's on tap in High School, Uni & everywhere.

Us Brits seem to get a slamming on here quite often about things we do, but you hardly ever hear about us with guns, with fists and baseball bats and stuff okay, but never guns.

Is that because guns need aim?

Very ordinary, for someone pulling a gun to be sooo unaware of surroundings like foot traffic, CCTV, other visuals.....Then to have the safety catch undone and finally to let the gun go off? El stupido.

Phuket shooting - The tatooed mean looking Aussie in the picture is telling police "Mistakes happen, you lot know that"!! Do we send him to the penal colony called Patong or does he get to rot in a Thai jail ?

Have never seen men flirt with women and definitely not in Thailand. Have seen lots of Thai women get aggressive and flirt with men as part of a merit-making process for the after life, I am told. LOL

Told my girlfriend to send Khun Sarot some more panties. He needs help with the identity crisis. Greedy, "stashed in a plastic bag inside the truck were more than 100 pairs of women’s panties" - was he trying to start a panty mega mall.

Is Thailand getting too much like America......where people are either sued or shot and sometimes both.

Am not sure why both Lee & Maharan would not try to resolve this outside of the lengthy & rigid Thai legal system. There are ways in which people - even landlords - can be persuaded to change their world view; sometimes in a hurry. Have seen such informal networks work quite effectively in local business.

"Chumpol collapsed at Govt House and his heart stopped beating for 45 minutes".

(sigh) Heartbeat, why do you miss when my baby kisses me. Heartbeat, why does your love kiss stay in my memory?

Have copped lots of criticism here and some hate-mail. For no good reason. Maybe I am mistaken but I believe this forum includes young Thais and not just ageing farang. Before you go into overdrive with rude comments; you know Mum always says ' whoever is blameless let 'em cast the first stone'. ko-puun-kaap.

A male receptionist ?? Most receptionists are pretty females who can do with a coffee and company.

Then, this male receptionist is drugged by another male ? Makes me wanna sing 'Desperado'

sigh.....if true says a lot for the down-on-heel low budget - oft times - desperate, farang Thailand is attracting.

If Thailand sacks officials for intimidating judges there will not be a lot of govt.officials left. Besides, going by community banter many judges in Thailand actually enjoy being er...intimidated.

Would be nice if girls remembered to take the pill. No good coming out suddenly and saying "pregnant". Have had 2 bad experiences. In 2010 a school friend who was going steady with me for 6 months. She suddenly got pregnant. I was shocked. The girl just 16 y.o. was thrilled and so were her Thai parents. It took Dad's intervention (my last resort and I was made to suffer ) to get the girl's family to re-consider. A second time just a few months back a lady working in one of the family businesses began going out with me. She's about 15 years older than me. Almost my Mum :-) LOL. Anyway, during the weekends I stayed at her home I became friends with her 17 y.o. daughter. Before you knew it the daughter got pregnant. They were delighted, the mum included. Again it took my family intervention to get them to understand that it was not okay.

sigh.....Thai women all seem to want babies whenever things are going well.

Never a care for the right time or the future or how the bloke feels.

For me its been two very expensive involvements, and I'm not even 20 as yet.

Supposedly this has gone on for three years ... right or wrong sometimes it is better to just suck it up and pay then worrying about being right. How much can the furniture have cost compared to lawyer fees and what has been reported he has had to deal with including appeals to the Supreme Court.

And why would somebody need an exit visa if the case had been cleared? If he thought the matter was cleared up. I'd think he would just head to the airport. I am not experienced in such matters but thought you only need an exit visa if you were a citizen of a nation that has travel restrictions or there were legal issues such as an ongoing case which seems to be the circumstances here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...hester-20589033

So you are saying he should just suck it up and take what the THAI is throwing at him regardless, bow down and kiss the feet of this Thai landlord who apparently is trying to extort money out of him. Let me guess Nisa, you are a Thai woman right?

I think what several comments suggest is that the Brit needs to be "pragmatic","realistic". Its possible to wear a morally superior tone whilst compromising legally. It happens in the business world all the time and is part of the price of doing business in emerging-Asia; as Dad reminds us regularly. After all, it hardly pays to win the battle and lose the war (something which seems to have happened in this case) or as some may say what good is cutting my nose to spite my face. Its takes both bxlls and brains to be pragmatic, to be realistic.

Vindictive little landlord or is there more to this than meets the eye. There are very effective alternate ways to fix things in Thailand - something the Brit may not have explored. good luck.

So Thai police now have us believe that a husband and wife fired at each other in perfect sync right down to the second. Then a second coincidence took place when the wife's bullet hit the husband in the head and the husband's bullet hit the wife in the head. Perfect target delivery by both. Something like Olympic synchronized swimming. Next the police will be saying that Goldilocks ate the bears.

Wish our police would surprise Thai people at least once each month with sounds which are not anal.

Am not sure why we pay such a bunch of misfits to show up for work. Idjuts!!

"Just when police were about to leave and take Prayoonsak to the station, an old ceiling board broke and fell down to the floor right before their feet. Along with the ceiling board came a box of 1,190 meth pills and some crystal meth tablets. The ill-planned concealment was reportedly exposed by a tremor triggered during a footrace between two rats."

Straight out of a Monty Python movie. A footrace between two rats brought down a ceiling !! No end to the dramas Thai's (army of) Inspector Clouseau's get up to. On rare occasions with happy endings like this one.

Anecdotal data suggests that 80% of patients admitted to Thai public hospitals as "emergency" or "serious" never make it out alive. So much for charging for an inept public service.

One can either study for high-level Thai language mastery or something lesser, guided by the role you are planning to engage in Example: a) Is it Thai customer interfacing or purely a back-office role (requiring interaction with fellow employees) Will it be in a multinational company where communications occur in both Thai and English? c) Are the company's books of account, job descriptions, process instructions, daily circulars flowing among staff in both Thai and English? If the answers to these show an immense Thai-language bias maybe high-level Thai language mastery is needed. A pharmacist needs high-level Thai mastery given his/her trade and customer base in Thailand whilst a secretary to a Thai Chairman may find English language skills appreciated. These are purely examples to make the language-point.

Employment preferences and employer settings dictate level of Thai. No matter which level of Thai one finds ones "Employment preferences" geared towards - the last thing Thai's need is for farangs to show up looking London and talking Tokyo.