Chiangmai Guesthouse Murder Case--

[cojones]

MURDER PROBE: British embassy wants Jones case reopened

Published on Nov 08 , 2004

Police have failed to find Welsh tourist’s killer after 4 long years

British embassy representatives yesterday met a senior Thai police official to ask him to reopen

the probe into the murder of Kirsty Jones in a Chiang Mai guesthouse in 2000.

The 23-year-old Welsh traveller was brutally raped and strangled in the Aree Guest House in Muang district on August 10, 2000.

British embassy officials have travelled to Chiang Mai several times during the past four years to revive the investigation.

Lt-General Panupong Singhara, commissioner of the Provincial Police Bureau Five, told the two British embassy representatives police would work on the case and gather as much evidence as they could.

DNA tests carried out at the Regional Crime Laboratory in Chepstow and the National Forensic Science Laboratory in London confirmed tests by Dr Thanin Bhoopat in Chiang

Mai, indicating the killer was Asian.

Investigators in charge of the case at that time pressed charges against Andrew Gill, the guest house owner, citing a hair found in the room where Jones was murdered.

Prosecutors dropped the charges on the grounds the evidence did not carry any weight considering that Gill often went to clean and make the beds.

Police have been unable to make an arrest because they have been unable to link anybody to the semen found inside

Jones.

Police have offered a Bt30,000 reward to anyone who leads them to the perpetrator, but no witnesses have come forward. Witnesses near the scene told police they heard a scream from the room.

Police suspect Jones’ killer bought sperm from area taxi drivers or prostitutes who gave him their panties.

Police said they were not

confident that the sperm found

on Jones was that of the murderer.

Police will provide security to witnesses if they come forward to identify the murderer or

whoever sold the sperm.

A source said Jones’ father believes Gill was involved in the crime. He has sought information about Gill from Thai police to file a complaint against him in England.

After prosecutors dropped charges against him, Gill sold his guesthouse and moved to France. He has since changed his nationality to French and has never returned to Thailand.

[stroll]

Buying sperm from area taxi drivers? Presuming Thai police have reasons to consider this (is this a reasonable presumption?), it points towards aspects to this case which haven't been revealed in the media. Would an 'ordinary' murderer or rapist buy sperm from someone else beforehand?

[English Noodles]

Buying sperm from area taxi drivers? Presuming Thai police have reasons to consider this (is this a reasonable presumption?), it points towards aspects to this case which haven't been revealed in the media. Would an 'ordinary' murderer or rapist buy sperm from someone else beforehand?

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Stroll, the reason that the Thai police are throwing around this idea is because it is believed by the British police that in fact it was a Thai policeman who is guilty.

The British police gave the evidence to the Thai police a few years ago and were confident it would point to a certain Thai policeman but these lines of enquiry were never followed up.

If you read the artical i have printed below this helps explain it.

KIRSTY JONES CASE: Police officer is suspect (The Nation)

British detectives investigating the brutal rape and murder of Kirsty Jones have been given information that her killer was a Thai policeman.

The detectives from DyfedPowys in Wales were last night considering evidence linking a group of Thai policemen to the Aree Guest House in Chiang Mai, where the 23yearold Welsh backpacker was found brutally strangled and raped on August 10, 2000.

The information points to a Thai tourist policeman with fluent English who has a reputation for prowling local bars looking for foreign women and was seen outside the guest house on the night in question.

The detectives have asked the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok to take over the enquiry. It is possible the Thai police may ask that a group of officers in Chiang Mai undergo DNA tests.

If Jones’ killer turns out to be the police suspect, it may explain why police in Chiang Mai put a lid on the enquiry.

Superintendent Steve Wilkins of DyfedPowys police and Detective Inspector Steve Hughson were due to return to London today after presenting what they described as “several lines of enquiry” to General Charnchit Phianlert, deputy commissioner of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok.

Also present at the meeting was Britain’s ambassador to Thailand, Barny Smith.

Regional police from Chiang Mai were not at the meeting.

To encourage the enquiry the British detectives also gave Thai police separate DNA evidence which they believe will convict a man who killed a Thai motorcycle policeman last year.

Thai police have agreed to form a completely new unit to take the enquiry further. Welsh police have provided a complete DNA profile of Jones’ killer. They believe if Thai police now follow their guidelines they will find the murderer.

DNA tests carried out at the Regional Crime Laboratory in Chepstow and the National Forensic Science Laboratory in London confirmed tests made in Chiang Mai by Dr Thanin Bhoopat, and show that within eight days of the murder the Thai police knew that the killer was not Asian. Nevertheless, they ignored the work done by the forensic scientists and charged the guest house owner, Andrew Gill, who The Welsh detectives may also wish to interview Gill, who is currently in Scotland.

But they have completely denied reports emanating from Chiang Mai police that they believe Gill could have been the killer.It is believed that the “group of five” – one Thai army officer and four tourist policemen – were friends with both Gill and Surin Janpamet, the guesthouse manager. Surin is a former Buddhist monk who was forced to leave his temple after being accused of having sex with a foreign tourist on the temple grounds.

The group trawled Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar cadging drinks from foreign barowners and attempting to chat up local tourists. They also drank frequently from the fridge at the guest house, and “helped out” Gill whenever he got into trouble, usually after a drunken brawl.

Two witnesses have identified one of the group of policemen wearing civilian clothes in the area of the guest house on the night Jones was murdered. One claimed to have seen him smoking a cigarette under a tree in the Aree courtyard as if he were waiting for someone.

A second witness, a schoolteacher, claimed to have seen the same man coming out of the lobby, off which was Jones’ room. But the second witness then claimed to have seen Andy Gill go into the room and then heard the screams.

The DNA evidence from the UK suggests that Gill was set up on the murder charge.

The Chiang Mai police claimed that they had DNA evidence against Gill from a hair found in Jones’ room, and the superintendent in charge of the case, SutepSuthep?? Dechrugsa, explained away the sperm on the body by saying quite that Gill or his partner in crime had probably gone out on the streets of Chiang Mai and bought the sperm from a labourer or a prostitute, “who would be quite willing to sell it for money”.

What has not been revealed before is that Jones went to the Bubbles discotheque in Chiang Mai on August 8, the night before her murder. With her was Nathan Foley, an Australian backpacker and the first suspect to be picked up, and two girls, Sai and Nang, from the Aree Guest House.

It is in this area that the tourist police used to hang around and attempt to chat up lone girl tourists, witnesses say.

A source close to the investigation said: “The general in charge of the investigation wants this matter closed. When he arrested Andrew Gill for the murder he thought he would be able to shut down the enquiry and give MajGeneral Aram Jampen [the former head of Region 5, which covers eight provinces in northern Thailand] a retirement present.

“British Embassy officials have come to Chiang Mai several times to try to revive the investigation. Every time they come there is a lot of jumping around, and officers go off in all directions to make enquiries. As soon as the embassy officials go everything stops.

“If the murderer is a policeman they would not want to make this public.

“They refused to DNA the officers. They claimed they could not because they could not get permission from Tourist Police Headquarters in Bangkok.”

There was also reluctance to help from Region 5 police. A senior Chiang Mai police general tried to block the DNA being sent to England, saying it had all been lost, and the British officers were reminded that they had no jurisdiction in Thailand. If they attempted to interview witnesses, they were told, they would be deported immediately.

Welsh detectives have since been given details of the sexual attacks on four other women – two from London – in the Chiang Mai area.

Had the British detectives been able to interview Dr Thanin they would have known immediately that the killer had Asian or Thai DNA and that the killer was also the rapist.

At Chiang Mai’s Samitivej University, Dr Thanin said: “Yes, I knew from my experience of DNA testing that the rapist was Asian. I also knew that there was no DNA evidence to link Andrew Gill to the crime. I gave this information to police. I cannot, however, interfere with how they run their investigation. In the end the case was thrown out because of the lack of DNA evidence.”

In fact the closest match to the DNA was a trekking guide from the Karen hill tribe called Narong Pojanathamrongpong, 36. The similarity was so close to the murderer that British police have also asked for testing of all his relatives.

Narong, who claims to have been beaten by Thai police in an attempt to extract a confession, has three brothers – Luger, 42, Charlie, 28, and Ni Yom., 42.

Luger is also a trekking guide, and the two younger brothers are farmers, but all are believed to have been over 150 kilometres away in the village of Pha Dtung when Jones was killed.

Narong said: “I trust the British police. But I know it was not me and cannot believe it could be any of my brothers. I am willing to undergo DNA testing again, but I would prefer British police to be present.”

Superintendent Wilkins said: “Despite the setbacks I want to make the point that there are some very good policeman in Thailand who want to pursue the case properly and seem very willing to do so. They have been given new lines of enquiry and we hope they pursue the case fully, whatever result they may get. The work carried out by the forensic scientist Dr Bhoopat was excellent.”

Andrew Drummond

The Nation, Chiang Mai

[stroll]

Thank you. This puts it in perspective. Couldn't it be asked from the police to do a piss test? Seems acceptable to subject everybody living under the sun to it. Some interesting 'other' results may be found as well.

The issue of this murder is to be seen in a wider context, the credibility of Thailand as an evolved form of society, and a further discouragement of tourists to visit are at stake here.

[penzman]

Looks like there should be an investigation on the police investigation...

[chuchok]

If he's a Tourist police, then he's not a "real" cop then..I'm sure that a few well connected farung around here have heard a few stories

[kat]

Of course it is a police officer, and of course it is a cover-up. Who in their right thinking would dismiss a respected forensic test with the excuse that the rapist could of bought sperm from taxi drivers and labourers?

I really hope British diplomats are able to open this case up and get something done about it. Maybe people need to start a buzz about this case the way there was a buzz about the English couple that was killed. Funny, that is, isn't it - when it comes down to just a woman or two everything seems to fade off into the distance.

What was that you said on another thread Noodles - approach us from behind with a big stick?

[somtaamgaiyang]

Wasn't the policeman who shot the tourists in Katchanaburi also a tourist policeman?

As for suspecting that someone bought sperm to hide his identity, a wonderfully constructed masterpiece of a coverup.

I didin't think the Thai police were that smart.

[lopburi3]

Wasn't the policeman who shot the tourists in Katchanaburi also a tourist policeman?

As for suspecting that someone bought sperm to hide his identity, a wonderfully constructed masterpiece of a coverup. 

I didin't think the Thai police were that smart.

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I posted first Thai TV new reports saying that but believe he was a regular police investigator but involved with tourists in his business.

[stroll]

I didin't think the Thai police were that smart.

*

You'd be surprised how smart or dumb they can play when they take an interest, not to be underestimated.

[astral]

Looks like there should be an investigation on the police investigation...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That would be like the fox guarding the chickens!!

All this does not auger well for the Kanchaburi case either.

[kat]

So true. Although sometimes, their coverups reveal their ignorance as well. I mean, who in their right minds would ever believe that people would buy that story. Truly Amazing.

I didin't think the Thai police were that smart.

*

You'd be surprised how smart or dumb they can play when they take an interest, not to be underestimated.

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