Motorcycle Mugging: Police Reject Parents' Plea

[alanmorison]

THE THIEVES who almost killed two young expats by kicking them off a motorcycle into a stone wall in Patong recently will never be caught.

Why? Because the local police do not even accept that any crime was committed.

So there can be no hunt for the perpetrators, because there is no record that the night's horrific event was anything more than a motorcycle crash.

Jake Carey, 21, and Carly Moorhouse, 17, came close to death as a result of a bag snatch by a couple of muggers as they were overtaken on Patong's beach road about 2am on June 1.

Several weeks on, the victims, one a young staffer and the other a student from the British International School Phuket, are still struggling to fully recover.

What most riles Paul Moorhouse, a well-known Phuket property developer and the father of Carly, is that local police have never sought to record a proper account of the crime.

The circumstances of the mugging, the crash and the aftermath echo the concern of Thai and expat residents and tourists about crime on Phuket.

They also illustrate the challenges faced by the island's newly appointed police chief, Major General Apirat Hongtong.

General Apirat has promised to improve law enforcement on the island and has said he will transfer any police officer who does not fully support his policy.

In most other countries, the incident would probably be treated as a case of attempted murder, Moorhouse says. But on Phuket it has simply been recorded as a motorcycle accident, and that's it.

''Two young kids could have been killed, very easily,'' Moorhouse says. ''So that's a worry.

''Yet what is probably more worrying than the crime itself, though, is the attitude of the police, the apathy of the police.''

--Full story at www.phuketwan.com

[huggybear]

THE THIEVES who almost killed two young expats by kicking them off a motorcycle into a stone wall in Patong recently will never be caught.

How about the Norwegian guy who was killed by the Kata Viewpoint? Did they ever catch anybody there?

The guy with the teenage girl in Chalong who was shot? Did they catch anybody there?

Wouldn't it be great if we could put all these cases together and make the police accountable here, but you would have to do it anonymously because the consequences of riling up the BIB can be fatal.

[Boater]

well if they concentrate more on catching these people then having 15 officers at a police check point looking for people not wearing helmets, then somethings might improve!