5 year old son locked in house with dead British Father in East Pattaya

[dighambara]

Terrible story, the poor little boy. I guess he and his father lived a quite life and pretty much kept to themselves. I hope English relatives come forward and offer the little guy a real chance in life.

Must have missed it somewhere! Where did it say the father was English? Racism is a funny thing: it's much closer to home than you think!

My apologies, British not English.

To all those offended by what appears as an extremely racist post, my apologies. In no way did racism enter my mind when I wrote it and it was never intended to appear racist. Again my very sincere apologies to all those offended.

May I suggest that the Mods remove my post. I am very sorry.

With the loss of his Father's support, life anywhere in Great Britain would likely be better than here with his mother - simply the truth.

[StaffsShot]

A tragic incident. Everyone now will be all pulling together for Luke.

His dad so young too. My condolences to all his family

Please, TV members (some), stop making ridiculous posts about what his nationality may or not have been.

[yankee99]

Terrible story, the poor little boy. I guess he and his father lived a quite life and pretty much kept to themselves. I hope English relatives come forward and offer the little guy a real chance in life.

Must have missed it somewhere! Where did it say the father was English? Racism is a funny thing: it's much closer to home than you think!

My apologies, British not English.

To all those offended by what appears as an extremely racist post, my apologies. In no way did racism enter my mind when I wrote it and it was never intended to appear racist. Again my very sincere apologies to all those offended.

May I suggest that the Mods remove my post. I am very sorry.

Very sad may he RIP

Funny as not being from the uk/eu area i would never had thought calling someone from england "english" would be a racist

[chooka]

Rob is my brother and Luke my nephew. The whole situation makes me feel sick to my core, and I can't even begin to comprehend how some of you think its in any way appropriate to have a debate about racism on the back of a report of his death and the tragic circumstances surrounding it.

My family are grieving. It's difficult enough dealing with news reports and journalists without scummy speculation on top.

But just to clear it up for you all, Rob is from England. Luke has dual nationality but was born in Thailand. And our family is of Danish decent. The comments on Luke's mother are nothing more than fantasy, and this is a woman who is not only grieving, but trying to console her son.

But hey, what do our feelings matter, so long as you all get to gossip about it??

My condolences to you and your family. Please let us know what you are doing for little Luke and how some of us on here may help.

[ScotBkk]

Terrible story, the poor little boy. I guess he and his father lived a quite life and pretty much kept to themselves. I hope English relatives come forward and offer the little guy a real chance in life.

Must have missed it somewhere! Where did it say the father was English? Racism is a funny thing: it's much closer to home than you think!

It said the father was British, so we don't know if he is English, Welsh, Scottish (are there any other possibilities).

Here's hoping that he will be well cared for and have a good future.

Irish maybe ??

Edited April 28, 2014 by ScotBkk

[Soro86]

Luke is being well cared for. We're making arrangements to fly out shortly but need to try and scrape together the funds to fly out and give Rob a proper funeral.

[balo]

RIP sorry for your loss

[Tribalinstinxxx]

I just met both Rob and Luke at my friends place a month before he died. We had a really nice first meeting and i was playing football with Luke. My deepest condolences to the family and im most of all worried about little Luke who loved his father to bits and vice versa. This is truely shocking and upsetting news. rip bobby.

[Spaniel]

Tragic story. I wish the best for young Luke. Almost as tragic are all the off-topic posts.

[fonsboy]

Real tragedy . No reports of how the man died , if that's him in the photo he certainly looks well . I hope everything works out good for the little lad . If this is reported in the British press , their will be no shortage of offers to give him a good home in UK .

[joepattaya1961]

The father could be Norther Irish, Scottish or Welsh and not English but that's not even racism as neither are races they are countries, Perhaps, it was to do with assuming that the kid would be better off with his English relatives. I wholeheartedly agree with you though, it seems that the boy was living with only his father, the mother of the child wasn't there for 7 days so I assume they had separated, and the mother doesn't seem to have the kid's welfare at heart really, otherwise she probably would have called to find out how he was doing etc.

To all the moaners, moaning about a possibility of the deceased being Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish or whatever..........does it really matter?

[Gillyflower]

gabruce

There were other possibilities. I don't know whether they still exist. I just got out my old passports. When in 1964 I ran around the world with an Australian passport it was marked

AUSTRALIA

BRITISH PASSPORT

For the English (pension wise) I am A British expat living in France. Now I run around with a French passport. It is a darned sight cheaper than an Aus.one. But I consider myself .........I don't know what.

[Gonzo the Face]

Racism is not , truth be known, a part of this thread. As far as this thread goes, racism is just a word that some with , lets just say, a lower level of intelligence have chosen to use ..... and use in error due to insufficient education. But what is in fact shown, is something that very often goes hand in hand with racism and that is bigotry. Posters who know nothing of this grieving family, are posting blindly that the boy would have a better life in the UK. None of you know that. So by saying that you are showing your own bigotry.... His Thai family may be a very nice and loving family, and very willing and capable of giving Luke a fine and happy life. But to those of you posting such tripe while not knowing anything of the family , one way or the other, are just showing your own low level intelligence and bigotry.

People living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

[Bignose]

Rob is my brother and Luke my nephew. The whole situation makes me feel sick to my core, and I can't even begin to comprehend how some of you think its in any way appropriate to have a debate about racism on the back of a report of his death and the tragic circumstances surrounding it.

My family are grieving. It's difficult enough dealing with news reports and journalists without scummy speculation on top.

But just to clear it up for you all, Rob is from England. Luke has dual nationality but was born in Thailand. And our family is of Danish decent. The comments on Luke's mother are nothing more than fantasy, and this is a woman who is not only grieving, but trying to console her son.

But hey, what do our feelings matter, so long as you all get to gossip about it??

Soro86, I believe the majority of people who use this forum will be able to relate to the pain your family must be feeling, most of us who have lost someone close will understand what you are all going through. That being said there are some extenuating circumstances that make this story especially tragic and very hard to read.

The fact that, even after your original post, so many people continued to post irrelevant and speculative comments really saddens me and could reflect badly on TV as a whole. Apologies to you and your family for what may actually be quite hurtful comments, these people are no way indicative of the vast number of people who use this site and should be ignored as irrelevant.

Commiserations and condolences to your family, both in the UK and here in Thailand, I am sure that in the years to come Luke will be well looked after and loved by his family from both nations. I hope your collective grief fades quickly and allows you and Luke to remember his father as the loving parent he must have been.

I am sure the vast bulk of all on TV wish you well...

[LennyW]

gabruce

There were other possibilities. I don't know whether they still exist. I just got out my old passports. When in 1964 I ran around the world with an Australian passport it was marked

AUSTRALIA

BRITISH PASSPORT

For the English (pension wise) I am A British expat living in France. Now I run around with a French passport. It is a darned sight cheaper than an Aus.one. But I consider myself .........I don't know what.

I know what i consider you ......

[Soro86]

I'm sorry to drag this up again, but a few people have asked me to update, so here goes;

We flew out to Thailand at the end of May and met Luke with his mum and her new family. He is very settled and happy, and whilst he does understand that his father has died he doesn't seem to have an emotional understanding, if that makes any sense.

I'm glad that he and I formed a very strong bond during the time I was there, and I have spoken to him and his mum every day before and after going over. She is caring for him very well, and is currently investigating schooling options that may better cater for his autism.

Just for the record, Robert's friend had died suddenly just a couple of weeks before him and the funeral was on Wednesday the week Robert died. We had all tried contacting him by phone, skype, email etc but received no response. We all collectively and individually thought that it was because Robert wanted some time to himself to grieve. However, that aside it wasn't overly unusual to go short spells of time with no contact anyway.

We had to undergo the arduous task of going to Rob's house to collect his personal belongings. All I was interested in was documents and photographs. When we got there, the smell was very nauseating. This was worsened by the fact that Rob's house had been completely ransacked. Anything of any monetary value had been taken (jewellery, phones, computers, Luke's ipad etc). That in itself was awful, but as I said I wasn't interested in anything like that anyway. But everything had been strewn across the lawn and the floors of the house. Some things had been randomly put into binbags, so I then had to rummage through my brother's things to find important documents and photos that had always been stored so carefully together amongst the mess with people watching through the gates, and with everything that I moved another wave of the smell would hit me.

I had arranged with Rob's friend for him to be cremated, and I was under the impression that this would be done privately and the remains given to us to be blessed. The day that this was due to be done I received a call to go to the temple, where we then had to watch as they carried Rob's body up the temple steps wrapped only in muslin sheeting before placing him in an open coffin on the lower level of the temple. The rest of the service was actually quite nice, but obviously as we weren't expecting to see him at all it was something of a shock and hard to deal with. We then had a Catholic service the following day, which was lovely.

Since we've come home we've held a Catholic service here for his family and friends, which was last Thursday. Again, this was beautiful and I now feel that I can start to get some closure. I miss him so much, but now can keep in daily contact with Luke to make sure he's ok and has everything he needs. Luke is still well, his mother found it a little hard at first when I came back home as he asks for me every day, but she knows she can video call me at any time, and I've made sure she knows that if ever she finds it too much she can call me and I'll bring Luke to me for however long she needs. For those saying that Luke should have been brought over to England, it would be too big a change for him to deal with as he needs his routine to feel secure, and I wouldn't want to take him away from everything he's ever known without it being the only choice. I will be going over to see him again, but his mother and her partner have done and continue to do a brilliant job with settling him in to his new home and he clearly feels very loved by them.

Thank you for the messages of support, it really meant a lot to know that people care xxx

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Thanks for the update, missed the bit where Luke was autistic earlier.

But you should understand, Thailand is not very sympathetic to kids with special needs.

Take him to England if you can.

His life in Thailand will likely be truly awful.

[Gillyflower]

Thanks for the update. I wish you and your family well. I hope everything goes well for little Luke.

[Bignose]

While most of it is well intentioned I am sure you will ignore most of the advice given here, by the sound of it his mum has Luke's well being at the front of her thoughts and will provide the mothers love and support that he needs.

The doom sayers have been out in force on this one decrying Thailand as no fit place to bring Luke up, while there may be differences between the UK and Thailand when it comes to social programmes and support, if his mum and partner can provide a loving home for him that that will more than compensate.

You have done what you can and you have certainly done "the right thing" by your brother and his son, hopefully the closure you mention comes quickly and easily for all involved. Even if it is mostly from a distance, I wish you and your family years of happiness and good memories, your visits to see Luke will be all the more enjoyable because of it.