Murderer Sentenced To Life On Killing Canadian

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Murderer sentenced to life imprisonment on killing Canadian

BANGKOK: -- The criminal court has sentenced a tourist guide to death but reduced it to life imprisonment on charges of robbing and killing a Canadian tourist in the central province of Sukhothai.

The criminal court in Bangkok on Friday sentenced Mr. Picherd Saenkaew, 32, of the northeastern province of Si Sa Ket on charges of premeditated murder of Canadian tourist identified as David Chan.

The prosecutor earlier charged that Mr. Picherd, alias Cherd, on between February 3-4, 2002 and two other accomplices who were still at large had lured Mr. Chan to travel to Chiang Mai from Bangkok by car. The trio hit the victim while he was urinating on a roadside in a village of Sukhothai province with a steel bar several times and then strangled him to death with a belt. They later took away his camera, a wristwatch and cash worth altogether 7,580 baht before fleeing the scene.

During the police interrogation, Mr. Picherd confessed to the crime but later decided to fight the case in court by saying that he was tortured by police. However, he admitted that he knew the victim before.

In passing the sentence, the criminal court said the accused had taken police to reenact the crime scene and made the confession by signing his name and, therefore, his defense did not hold sufficient grounds.

Mr. Picherd and his Burmese accomplice were earlier sentenced by a criminal court on charges of robbing and killing two Japanese tourists.

--TNA 2004-10-10

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Retired boxer, Burmese man charged with tourist killings

Police seek two others for Canadian's death

Wassayos Ngamkham

A retired Thai boxer and a Burmese man have been charged with the murder of two Japanese men they met at homosexual bars in Bangkok last year.

The boxer, Picherd Saenkaew, 30, of Si Sa Ket, was also charged with the murder of a missing Canadian this year.

Mr Picherd and his alleged associate Aung Saw Gyaw lured their victims to their apartments where they killed them for their belongings and credit cards.

``I had to kill them so they would not have a chance to cancel their credit cards,'' Mr Picherd told a news conference at police headquarters yesterday.

The suspects were charged with killing two Japanese tourists, Tomohiro Kosha and Akinobu Abe, and dismembering and hiding their bodies at Bangkok dump sites in April and July last year.

Police were also searching for two other Burmese suspected of involvement in the murder of the Canadian, identified by police as David Chan, in Sukhothai.

Mr Picherd was apprehended as he was about to board a bus at the Ekkamai terminal. Aung Saw Gyaw, 19, was arrested at a rented house in Sukhumvit Soi 105.

Police chief Gen Sant Sarutanont said the two suspects had confessed to murdering Abe, 32, in April last year and Tomohiro Kosha, 30, three months later.

Mr Picherd had also admitted murdering the Canadian tourist with assistance from two other Burmese men in February this year, police said.

The two men were charged with premeditated murder, moving or disposal of the body or parts of the body to conceal the cause of death, and collusion to forge documents and use them.

Pol Gen Sant said Mr Picherd, who worked as an illegal tourist guide, knew Aung Saw Gyaw, who worked in a gay bar on Sukhumvit.

The two had met Abe and tricked him into staying with them at an Onnuch apartment, where they hit him over the head with a chair and then strangled him. Abe's body was stuffed into a suitcase which they dumped in Klong Saensab in Sukhumvit Soi 40.

Abe's body was discovered by Thong Lor police in April last year but investigators were unable to identify it.

After the killing, Mr Picherd and Aung Saw Gyaw left for Cambodia to cash Abe's traveller's cheques, worth 120,000 baht. They also used his credit cards at various shops in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, and Pattaya.

Gen Sant said the suspects had lured the second victim, Kosha, to a Phra Khanong apartment and killed him. They stole his traveller's cheques worth 200,000 baht, a credit card and his camera.

They admitted dismembering his body and packing it in a suitcase and garbage bags which they threw into a canal. The body parts have not been found.

The Canadian's body was discovered after the Canadian embassy alerted police to his disappearance.

Mr Picherd said he picked up basic Japanese when he went there to demonstrate muay thai. After returning to Thailand, he became an illegal guide preying on backpacker tourists on Khao San road.

He had been jailed once for stealing a traveller's cheque from a foreign tourist.

On his release from jail, he decided to go back to stealing and made up his mind he must murder his victims to silence them.

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Thai Guide Charged With Gay Tourist Murders

A Thai tour guide and a Myanmar citizen have been charged with the murder of two Japanese men and a Canadian man they met in gay bars in Bangkok's red light areas, Thai police confirmed.

Police said Picherd Saenkaew, 30, and Aung Zaw Saw, 19, picked up their Bangkok gay bars and invited them back to their apartments where they killed them for their belongings and credit cards.

"I had to kill them so they would not have a chance to cancel their credit cards," Picherd told a news conference at the Thai national police headquarters.

The suspects were charged with killing two Japanese tourists, Tomohiro Kosha and Akinobu Abe, and hiding their bodies at Bangkok rubbish sites in April and July last year, police said.

Picherd also confessed to killing a Canadian man, identified by the police as David Chan, and dumping his body in Sukhothai, 440 km north of Bangkok, police said.

Police said they were also searching for two other Myanmar citizens suspected of involvement in the murder of the Canadian.

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Thai guide held over murders of foreign tourists

BANGKOK - A Thai tour guide and a Myanmar citizen have been charged with the murder of two Japanese men and a Canadian man they met at homosexual bars in Bangkok's red light areas, Thai police said on Monday. Police said Picherd Saenkaew, 30, and Aung Zaw Saw, 19, befriended their victims in Bangkok gay bars and lured them to their apartments where they killed them for their belongings and credit cards. "I had to kill them so they would not have a chance to cancel their credit cards," Picherd told a news conference at the Thai national police headquarters.

The suspects were accused of killing two Japanese tourists and hiding their bodies at Bangkok dump sites in April and July last year, police said. Picherd also confessed to killing a Canadian man and dumping his body in Sukhothai, 440 km (275 miles) north of Bangkok, police said. - Reuters