Briton Killed

[gjones]

Briton killed after falling from 19th floor of Samut Prakan condominium

Samut Prakan - A British man fell from his room on 19th floor of a condominium building in what believed to be a suicide late Wednesday night.

Paul Hollen, 31, fell from his room of the Sukjai Garden Condominium in Phra Pradaeng district at about 12:40 am.

He was an English teacher of Siriwitthaya School.

Police said there was no trace of fighting inside his room so he was believed to have jumped down himself.

A security officer of the building said he saw the man came downstairs to buy two bottles of bear at 10 pm Wednesday and heard a loud noise behind the building two hours later. He went to check and found Hollen lying on the floor.

The Nation

[a2396]

So, I wonder what is his history of relationships & finances here. Is there ever follow-up on these incidents? Doesn't take much to push some drunken old geezer off the balcony.

[burman]

Hardly a drunken old geezer, he was 31 years old. Who cares about his relationship and financial situation, the guy was depressed and jumped. Or do we all need something to gloat at?

Had two people jump from my building since I moved here 7-8 months ago. Think I'd better stop talking to people in the lift.

Edited March 6, 2008 by burman

[naka]

So, I wonder what is his history of relationships & finances here. Is there ever follow-up on these incidents? Doesn't take much to push some drunken old geezer off the balcony.

So 31 is old and 2 beers equals drunk

Naka.

[a2396]

How do you know he was depressed? I assume you are a personal friend. There are certainly a lot of balcony jumpers here. Two people in one building in 7-8 months.

[Jefferson]

So, I wonder what is his history of relationships & finances here. Is there ever follow-up on these incidents? Doesn't take much to push some drunken old geezer off the balcony.

It draws quick attention though, and remember you still have to make your way down, often past security guards or cameras. Really, killing someone this way is not all it's cracked up to be.

[makavelithedon]

Hardly a drunken old geezer, he was 31 years old. Who cares about his relationship and financial situation, the guy was depressed and jumped. Or do we all need something to gloat at?

Had two people jump from my building since I moved here 7-8 months ago. Think I'd better stop talking to people in the lift.

Sorry, not a conspiracy nut, but yet again it's another jump and yet again appears an unusual type of death anywhere it seems outside Asia. This jumping from a mile up stuff is unheard of in the west as a way to end one's troubles, yet someone gets to this appalling state of mind and sees this as the easiest way to go?

Edited March 6, 2008 by makavelithedon

[Strap]

Sorry to hear about the young man,

31 is a young age to take your own life don't you think?

Sometimes I do wish they would follow up on these "accidents"

[a2396]

So, I wonder what is his history of relationships & finances here. Is there ever follow-up on these incidents? Doesn't take much to push some drunken old geezer off the balcony.

So 31 is old and 2 beers equals drunk

Naka.

I guess we know that he had no more than 2 beers, since we know that he had nothing to drink before he bought the two & no other liquor in the apt to add to it, right? I guess some people only need two beers to work themselves up to a suicide.

[Prakanong]

I am not making any guesses in this or other cases but I find the epidemiology of suicides in Thailand puzzling in the case of suicide by jumping.

I do not go along with the wild assetions of a guy I know from the UK now living in Pattaya that a gang off off duty policeman are going around throwing farangs out of the window who owe money though

Thats what the handcuffs and plastic bag over the had is for????

There does seem to be a much higher proportion of jumpers in Thailand rather than the pills and bottle of vodka etc.

In the west I am sure the proportion of jumpers is much smallers as a means of suicide - there must be some epidemiological figures somewhere on this.

[LuckyFive8888]

Hardly a drunken old geezer, he was 31 years old. Who cares about his relationship and financial situation, the guy was depressed and jumped. Or do we all need something to gloat at?

Had two people jump from my building since I moved here 7-8 months ago. Think I'd better stop talking to people in the lift.

Sorry, not a conspiracy nut, but yet again it's another jump and yet again appears an unusual type of death anywhere it seems outside Asia. This jumping from a mile up stuff is unheard of in the west as a way to end one's troubles, yet someone gets to this appalling state of mind and sees this as the easiest way to go?

maybe because they don't have access to guns like in the west?

Edited March 6, 2008 by LuckyFive8888

[Payboy]

So, I wonder what is his history of relationships & finances here. Is there ever follow-up on these incidents? Doesn't take much to push some drunken old geezer off the balcony.

So 31 is old and 2 beers equals drunk

Naka.

the report says he bought 2 bottles of beer at 10pm, will we ever know how many he had before that...?

may be he jumped, may be it was an accident, there's no reason to call anyone an old geezer and gloat over their misfortune...

rest in peace paul hollen!

[Prakanong]

I knew there would be something available

Take a look at the study here on page 7 and below

The number of jumpers is miniscule at 5% max in one age group - it also includes jumping in front of moving objects ie trains and I bet that accounts for most of the 5%

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/the...ealth/HSQ20.pdf

RIP to this poor guy who if he did jump it must be an awful way to go and he must have been in the depths of espair to do it.

[Prakanong]

Hardly a drunken old geezer, he was 31 years old. Who cares about his relationship and financial situation, the guy was depressed and jumped. Or do we all need something to gloat at?

Had two people jump from my building since I moved here 7-8 months ago. Think I'd better stop talking to people in the lift.

Sorry, not a conspiracy nut, but yet again it's another jump and yet again appears an unusual type of death anywhere it seems outside Asia. This jumping from a mile up stuff is unheard of in the west as a way to end one's troubles, yet someone gets to this appalling state of mind and sees this as the easiest way to go?

maybe because they don't have access to guns like in the west?

Lets compare apples with apples here - he was British and we had the sense to restrict guns after Dunblane.

[burman]

Hardly a drunken old geezer, he was 31 years old. Who cares about his relationship and financial situation, the guy was depressed and jumped. Or do we all need something to gloat at?

Had two people jump from my building since I moved here 7-8 months ago. Think I'd better stop talking to people in the lift.

Sorry, not a conspiracy nut, but yet again it's another jump and yet again appears an unusual type of death anywhere it seems outside Asia. This jumping from a mile up stuff is unheard of in the west as a way to end one's troubles, yet someone gets to this appalling state of mind and sees this as the easiest way to go?

Often people here talk about the unusually large amount of condo jumpers suicides and of course some are bound to be murders but I think everybody needs to look at some other factors here.

Take a 100 Britons in Bangkok, and a 100 Britons in London. A significantly much larger of the Bangkok based Britons will live in condos as oppose to houses. So that's one glaring reason right there as to why condo jumping is so popular.

And how many foreigners out here kill themselves by running a pipe from the exhaust of their car into the window? Never heard of one recently, because most people here (especially the type of people often in these circumstances) will not have access to a car.

I think condo jumping is so obviously the suicide of choice here because it's just so easy. You sit at home depressed, couple of drinks, look over the balcony and for the few split seconds it takes to make the fatal decision, have a moment of madness.

[Prakanong]

"Take a 100 Britons in Bangkok, and a 100 Britons in London. A significantly much larger of the Bangkok based Britons will live in condos as oppose to houses. So that's one glaring reason right there as to why condo jumping is so popular.

And how many foreigners out here kill themselves by running a pipe from the exhaust of their car into the window? Never heard of one recently, because most people here (especially the type of people often in these circumstances) will not have access to a car.

I think condo jumping is so obviously the suicide of choice here because it's just so easy. You sit at home depressed, couple of drinks, look over the balcony and for the few split seconds it takes to make the fatal decision, have a moment of madness."

You may have a point but I am still skeptical.

The carbon monoxide poisopning is a good point if you look at the figures given in the study above and access to car's.

Most people do not make the decision to jump or to kill themsleves on the spur of the moment - its a build up and time to prepare.

The jumping because of no access is the one I find a bit tenuous - anybody can find a lace to jump in the UK with free access but its not a method chosen that much is it?

[gunnyd]

Thread title "Briton Killed" Huh? Shouldn't be Briton dead in apparent suicide? You would think that one of his friends would have known if he was suicidal. As for jumping off a high place as a choice for suicide, being that you can't easily obtain a firearm in most SEA countries including LOS, jumping doesn't seem like an unusual choice. Statistically more women try to kill themselves (referred to as a suicidal gesture in the psychiatric community) 10 times more often then men but men successfully kill themselves more often. In Thailand 5.6 men and 2.4 women per 100,000 successfully commit suicide. And in the U.K. 11.8 men and 3.3 women per 100,000 kill themselves.

And it seems that some farangs come to Thailand as a last hurrah before ending it all.

"Every year, hundreds of suicidal farang fellas max out their credit cards and head off to Thailand for a final fling. It's a bit like when kids with leukaemia get sent to Disneyworld - except the rides here aren't suitable for children.

Occasionally, I stop for a drink at a small beer bar off Sukhumvit. One of the regulars there is a quiet English fella called Sid (not his real name) who always sits alone watching the UBC sports channels. For two years we exchanged nothing more than a nod but, one evening, he turned round and said hello.

My surprise soon turned to astonishment. Far from having nothing to say, silent Sid turned out to be very articulate. He was well travelled, knowledgeable and a pleasure to talk to. He seemed a little world-weary but I was still surprised when he calmly said that he planned to kill himself quite soon.

I didn't want to pry into Sid's personal life but it was obvious that things hadn't gone well for him. He had come to Thailand to claim the consolation prize of a massive shag-fest. With plenty of cash in the bank, he had got jiggy with hundreds of Thai women in many interesting combinations.

Now, though, he couldn't be bothered with sex anymore. To add to his woes, a volatile stock-market had left his savings in a worse state than his libido.

"I live in a tiny room, eat on the street and allow myself six Chang beers a night." He explained. "I come here because the owner lets me have the TV remote."

Living like this, Sid reckoned that he could survive for another three years. Sadly, he meant this quite literally. I couldn't really offer him any advice but, by buying him a beer, I was able to extend his life-expectancy by 45 minutes. To ask how he intended to kill himself would have been crass but I'm sure he would have been happy to tell me.

The balcony death-plunge is always a crowd-pleaser but the practice has become so popular in recent years that only the most bizarre cases make the headlines. Last week, the Bangkok Post reported how one unlucky farang succeeded only in breaking his arm. In hospital, he was carelessly allocated a bed on a high floor. Needless to say, his second jump was more successful.

Suicide Sid differs from most of these guys in that he lives on his own. His death won't feature the usual sideshow of a rough-looking Thai bar girl squeezing out a few crocodile-tears before asking how much she's going to get." -MS Thailand

Edited March 6, 2008 by gunnyd

[spasticated]

Maybe when he opened the bottles the two "bears" inside pushed him????

[Maizefarmer]

Tragic ... we can speculate all we like, nothing has being said by the police of any relivance one way or the other to date as to how or why he fell - what we can be sure of, is that back in the UK there will be a very distraught mother/father/sister/brother or some other relative.

By the grace of god go the rest of us

[kiakaha]

Briton killed after falling from 19th floor of Samut Prakan condominium

Samut Prakan - A British man fell from his room on 19th floor of a condominium building in what believed to be a suicide late Wednesday night.

Paul Hollen, 31, fell from his room of the Sukjai Garden Condominium in Phra Pradaeng district at about 12:40 am.

He was an English teacher of Siriwitthaya School.

Police said there was no trace of fighting inside his room so he was believed to have jumped down himself.

A security officer of the building said he saw the man came downstairs to buy two bottles of bear at 10 pm Wednesday and heard a loud noise behind the building two hours later. He went to check and found Hollen lying on the floor.

The Nation

Just to add a balanced view, some of these possibly are accidents. I live on the 20th floor and my balcony railing is rather low(not far above my center of gravity), so much so that sufficiently drunk, I could easily topple over.I added higher rope railings for safety.

RIP to guy concerned.

[dee123]

.....the building regulations for height of balconey rail......are they same as UK/Europe?....only when I stare up at these condo monstrocity's I get shivers down my spine,.....when loking at the balcony's...

Edited March 6, 2008 by dee123

[Maigo6]

Personaly I'm not at all surprised at the ammount of Suicides in Thailand, In the west Suicide isn't exactly unheard of either.

Thailand attracts some people who are running away from problems in their lives, bad debt, bad marriage etc, running away to Thailand may seem like a good idea at the time, then the money runs out, the few plastic friends that you thought you had made beat a hasty retreat when you are running short of cash, the Visa needs renewing, family at home don't wanna know you anymore.

Christmas, Birthdays anniversaries, these can trigger deep depressions in people who have fawked their lives up and can see no way back, shame and despair can drive some people to take thier lives.

I've seen it in Pattaya, people just so far down with no money at all doing desperate things, some are doing 50 Years in Bank Kwang Prison for trying to smuggle Heroin out of Thailand, some went back to their own countries and actually sorted their lives out, some never made it at all.

R.I.P.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Maigo6

[misterman21]

Jumping from balconies seems to be most popular with expats in Thailand - especially after a couple of beers (purchase of beer prior to jumping always features in the write up).

Now isnt that odd!!!

[RueFang]

Thread title "Briton Killed" Huh? Shouldn't be Briton dead in apparent suicide? You would think that one of his friends would have known if he was suicidal.

Tabloid sensationalism obviously. Killed sounds way more dramatic then suicide.

[Mosha]

Given the low balcony heights common here, I don't suppose it's possible he tripped and fell?

[BigSnake]

Sadden RIP

[katana]

Briton killed after falling from 19th floor of Samut Prakan condominium

Samut Prakan - A British man fell from his room on 19th floor of a condominium building in what believed to be a suicide late Wednesday night.

Paul Hollen, 31, fell from his room of the Sukjai Garden Condominium in Phra Pradaeng district at about 12:40 am.

He was an English teacher of Siriwitthaya School.

...

I think Siriwitthaya School is Gor Nattawud's old school.

[howtoescape]

Samut Prakan - A British man fell from his room on 19th floor of a condominium building in what believed to be a suicide late Wednesday night.

Police said there was no trace of fighting inside his room so he was believed to have jumped down himself.

Does that mean there was someone in the room but they just werent fighting ?????

The story from the nation is a bit sparse on facts.

Few of the comments on here and exactly going to be viewed favourably by his family if/when the read this post.

[Tony Clifton]

One type of suicide that seems to have completely and suddenly stopped here in Thailand is the plastic bag over the head for foreigners.very common for a while a few years ago. Something I had never heard of in Canada or the U.S.

That leaves me thinking that most of those were murders and that whoever was committing those murders have changed their technique since.

R.I.P. Paul

[Mossfinn]

You would think that one of his friends would have known if he was suicidal.

Why would you think that?

If Family do not know, why would the guy open up to his friends, did he have any friends? Friends in the same sense that we know in a long standing environment in the place you were brought up, cultured over years?

Perhaps not, probably not.

Rest in Peace

Moss