Orac

Spring News are saying that the three ppl work at AC Bar.

I thought the local minders was a brilliant idea killing two birds with one stone - added security for tourists and jobs for all those out of work beach sellers and taxi/tuktuk drivers in Phuket who will soon be able to go to the airport and be supplied with their own personal 'mark'.

Gods answer to rid the filth from Pattaya. Remember Soddom & Gamorah. I look forward to seeing all the deck chairs & jet skis float away.

Pattaya will be fine - the beach is hardly the main attraction and the rest of it rises pretty quickly from sea level. Though there are occasional flash floods they drain pretty quickly given the slope and having the sea to drain into. Bangkok on the other hand would spend most of the year underwater.....

"Mather pointed out that the sea level in Trat and Chanthaburi provinces had risen by 4-5 millimetres per year, against the mean global level change of 3mm."

Hysterical, but dutifully reported for the ignorant.

Further down the other report is saying in the 2030s the sea level in Chanthaburi is expected to rise 0.19mm a year though which is a whole order of magnitude smaller - either the usual sloppy reporting or they haven't got a clue what is going to happen.

I believe 3 men 2 Thai and 1 foreigner were attacking Hannah and David went to save her. He is atrue

hero.

Is the foreigner Sean?

I dont know but. He did say he was supposed to meet David,but did not. But he was accosted at the bar after the crime. It's obvious he was very near at the time of crime. In his story . He was just quietly sitting in the bar at 4 0clock in the morning and two of bar people casually walked inand threatened to stitch him up for acrime that was committed a little bit beforehand. The bar owner says he was covered in blood splatter , Like we got as much on you as you have on us. He was seennear the scene playing his guitar. His story does not add up. The use of a condomto hide dna is a foreigner thing and he may have used two condoms which is why no sperm was found at the scene. Thai are not bright enough to plan that. Must be aforeiger

Sean originally said he was supposed to have meet up with David but fell asleep.

Yes, and then his story changed and suddenly he was at the bar being threatened. And then he has acknowledged that he was the guitar player near the crime. His story doesn't make sense.

So he fell asleep and did not meet his friend. Woke up about 3 o'clock in the morning ,went down to the beach to play guitar. Around the time of the rape, went to the bar. The two guys come to threaten to frame him for a rape that had just happened. That he says he knew nothing about and was not there.

No. There is something wrong here.

Except the incident where he was threatened in the bar happened several days after the murder.

I believe 3 men 2 Thai and 1 foreigner were attacking Hannah and David went to save her. He is atrue

hero.

Is the foreigner Sean?

I dont know but. He did say he was supposed to meet David,but did not. But he was accosted at the bar after the crime. It's obvious he was very near at the time of crime. In his story . He was just quietly sitting in the bar at 4 0clock in the morning and two of bar people casually walked inand threatened to stitch him up for acrime that was committed a little bit beforehand. The bar owner says he was covered in blood splatter , Like we got as much on you as you have on us. He was seennear the scene playing his guitar. His story does not add up. The use of a condomto hide dna is a foreigner thing and he may have used two condoms which is why no sperm was found at the scene. Thai are not bright enough to plan that. Must be aforeiger

So, according to your theory, Sean was smart enough to use a condom and remove his own DNA from the inside of it but then goes off covered in the victims blood to find someone to clean it off for him - a someone who did not come forward once the murders were discovered?

SPECIAL REPORT

Snip

Also, before local police officers arrived at the crime scene at dawn on September 15, many locals had already messed up the evidence by moving the two murder weapons - a hoe and a wooden stick - and thereby affecting the fingerprints.

Snip

-- The Nation 2014-09-26

This is also an odd bit of info i had not seen before. I seem to recall there been a delay in them finding the second weapon which suggests the 'locals' had deliberately sabotaged the crime scene.

Is that his brother reaching for a gun to the right of him?

I wondered that too, but I think the object going forward from his hand is too long to be the top of a gun. I think he has his thumb hooked in his belt.

Thought he was playing pool???

soo easy to switch cum samples on the way to singapore,....

Is that what you think all these DNA samples are they are collecting???

@c4sparks: Thai police tell @Channel4News that 'prime suspect' in Koh Tao murders 'on the run' in Bangkok is in fact not on the run and not a suspect.

They have just released the passport photo of the suspect Warrot aged 22 ( Woraphan Toovichien's son) who is on the run in bangkok an hour ago.

Curious - that was tweeted by John Sparks - asia correspondent for UK Channel4 News - 15 mins ago.

@c4sparks: Thai police tell @Channel4News that 'prime suspect' in Koh Tao murders 'on the run' in Bangkok is in fact not on the run and not a suspect.

This cctv image dosn't look right to me, what is he holding up? his shorts? or a t-shirt wrapped round his shorts. I read in an article that He had blue shorts on and then cream shorts later on.

Or an injury of some sort. Don't forget that apparently David put up a fight so there is every chance that at least one of the ppl involved showed some sign of this which would possibly require a quick exit from the island and lying low for any such injuries to heal.

I think Sean is more involved then he's letting on his story seems very weak.

"Hours after the murders Sean posted: “My mate Dave lost his life on koh Tao. We were meant to meet up when we found out we were both there at the same time but I fell asleep.

“He was killed that night. I feel f****** terrible.

“I loved you so f****** much brother. I know you tried to save her."

2. Police come forward and said they were looking for three westerners playing guitar that night playing near the crime scene? And appear to be 3 new suspects

3. Can anyone else come forward? or is there any cctv footage to say that sean was in fact out that night and not sleeping like he said he was?

4. Why is there a conflicting story where Sean has now come out and said yes he was on the beach that night playing guitar

5. There is also a quote from Montriwat saying.. "An employee of the spa has told Montriwat that she had helped to clean blood from the face and body of Mr sean who is a friend of Millers"

6. Was Montriwat hot on Sean's tale and all they wanted to do was question him some more and that's why he has fled?

7. I followed Seans facebook after the murders and i found it really strange that someone who just lost a lose mate was making posts like normal like nothing had happened? His facebook has now been disabled.

8. Is Sean linked in any other way too the two other suspects, could he have been with them on the beach that night?

This is all all arm chair speculation from different media articles I've read but worth looking into.

As far as i am aware Sean has not said he was asleep at the time of the murder, just that he was asleep when he supposed to meet up with David but not what time that was - could have been due to meet up earlier in the evening. I have a friend who i have given up meeting early on as he always turns up several hours later because he nods off.

Going by the latest report from Thaipbs:

1) DNA tests did not match the two bar owners

2) The brother of the village chief said that one of his employees or friends helped Sean wash blood off his face and body on the night of the murders

3) The two sons of the village chief who fled to Bangkok apparently went there to attend school

My idea .... Only thinking

1. The owners are not the ones who raped the lady. The sons ( school boys) were the ones.

2. The brother lies to coverup. We're are these people who washed the blood ? Why they not come forward already? This would have been big news ....

3. Maybe the sons did go back to Bkk for school but that still don't answer why they left when the island was being shutdown. They knew they should not leave as their father and uncle were big shots on island. Also, if not guilty why not stay to see what happens.

Not change to my thinking ....

If the two sons have just returned to BKK to study how come, according to BKKPost, the police have had to mount a manhunt to find them and their own father cannot get in touch with them - surely given what is going on at home they would be aware that they are being looked for???

Consumption and investment can stimulate Thai economy

Cancel my copy of the Economist. That's it. it's done. it's solved. Wow.

Given that the major part of GDP is consumption and investment he does seem to be stating the bleeding obvious, particularly when the other factors are exports (minus imports) and government outlays. The danger is getting into the same potential mess that China is in by overdoing the investment financed through debt.

@forestmat: Southern police chief: enough evidence in British tourists’ murder case to make arrest now MT@ThaipbsEngNews http://t.co/LYtEamUhhT #KohTao

Wow, there are a lot of cynics on this thread. To think that the people who live on Koh Tao want anything less than justice for the killers of these two people is mind-blowing. Keep in mind, we LIVE here and can't stand the thought that there are people living amongst who are capable of such an atrocity. We want these people caught for the families of the victims, for our own safety, and to a much lesser degree because we have built lives and businesses here and we will undoubtedly suffer from the negative attention.

All of the speculation and the actual reporting of this story in the media has been terribly insensitive and counter-productive. The owner of the resort was one of the first on the scene because he owns a business adjacent to it. Reports that he hasn't submitted a DNA test are false. He was one of the first to be tested.

Talk of a mafia-run island is also incorrect. Some of our local business people have more influence than others because they have more land, money, family interests, etc. These are the people that get elected into government on Koh Tao as well as in many other places in the world. We don't have any history of tourist murders on the island. Drugs are not as prevalent here as they are in many other places in Thailand, and all of the Full Moon party references apply to Koh Phangan, not Koh Tao.

Sean McAnna has not been here working as a barman for 18 months here. In fact, he only recently arrived. He spent some time here in the past and wasn't able to maintain employment anywhere for long on the island. He has been all over the place with his views of what happened. His first post since the tragedy occurred (since removed) was of how sad he was and that he was supposed to meet David Miller on the night of the murders, but he fell asleep in his bungalow. Now he somehow seems to have witnessed the killings and can ID the killers. And if he did witness the murders, why is he only just now speaking up? We have had literally hundreds of mainland police combing this island for a week. If he felt uncomfortable speaking about it because he feared for what would happen to him if he did, why not leave the island and contact the British Embassy who could then keep him safe while he spoke with police in Bangkok or even at home in the UK? Instead, he drunkenly walked into AC Bar at night, alone and made accusations against the owner. And why would he post such garbage on Facebook instead of speaking to the authorities? These are just a few of the reasons that we question his mental state. He seems to be quite illogical in his actions and more than a little bit disturbed. Hopefully, he gets the help he needs and the authorities will get back to searching for the killers...

I thought Sean was the guy police were looking to talk to a few days back described as "guitarman" who was seen on the beach around the time of the murders?

What exactly is this anti-despotism campaign being referred and who are they targetting???

What is most telling is that 66.4% wanted the pm to stay until the job was done and 33.6% for just a year which means nobody wants him to step down now and hold a proper election which seems a bit of a stretch unless they were not allowed this as a choice???

What is interesting about that is that in most polls, particularly in Thailand, there is at least 5-10% that either say I don't know or don't answer the question.

I reckon that there were two separate questions.

The two results add up to exactly 100% so, most likely, the ppl surveyed were only offered a choice of two answers with no 'don't know' or 'neither of the above' options which makes the whole thing pretty meaningless.

As an extreme example, if you used the the same method with the question 'would you prefer the next PM to be Thaksin or Yingluck?' And ppl had to answer yes to one of them then it would be ridiculous to use the result as any sort of endorsement.

What is most telling is that 66.4% wanted the pm to stay until the job was done and 33.6% for just a year which means nobody wants him to step down now and hold a proper election which seems a bit of a stretch unless they were not allowed this as a choice???

I don't really get the title of this article. Who is "we"?

A very good question - who is Thanong suggesting looks for independence???

This was over a week ago!

One of the reasons prosecutors gave for deferring the NACC case was that evidence was incomplete. One example cited was research into the rice scheme by Thailand Development Research Institute - only the cover page of that research was submitted, it said.

"only the cover page of that research was submitted, it said."

these people are a complete joke; seriously!

seriously?

Maybe NACC thought that if OAG really wanted to read the whole report rather than the summary, then they would have asked to see it before making their decision. Seems to me OAG was always looking for reasons to delay the case.

Why would they want to see the report in the first place if it wasn't even about the rice pledging scheme that is in question.

The dressing up does remind me of the witch scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail somewhat.

It does need to be remembered though that the main reason this would not be allowed, along with the tv reenactments, in most other countries is that it would influence a jury prior to the trial which is not a problem here since they do not have them.