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British backpacker arrested for suspected murder of fellow Britons at Koh Tao


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I am quite surprised that General Prayuth has made statements that the holidaymakers should have known better than to leave themselves vulnerable by venturing out in the early hours on the island.

Good grief. I've never been there myself but have learnt the island is only three miles long . In theory you should feel 10 times safer in a small place like that in the early hours of the morning than in Bangkok or Pattaya ? If not, then Thailand really does have a problem with safetyermm.gif

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I am quite surprised that General Prayuth has made statements that the holidaymakers should have known better than to leave themselves vulnerable by venturing out in the early hours on the island.

Good grief. I've never been there myself but have learnt the island is only three miles long . In theory you should feel 10 times safer in a small place like that in the early hours of the morning than in Bangkok or Pattaya ? If not, then Thailand really does have a problem with safetyermm.gif

Bangkok is a big place, island is small. Island is full of people on booze and drugs? No idea myself, never been, size is not everything.

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It is unfortunate that the authorities come out with loads of BS prematurely. In typical Thai fashion, something must be said instantly, usually with little thought or evidence. After all is said and done I would not be surprised if it came back on some bar workers or fishermen etc.. I can't believe it was a single perp, and I think the nature of the male rape is key. It's grisly stuff, but without knowing any forensic details it is hard to evaluate the crime. And that goes for not just me and you, but the police as well. Wait for the lab results before blabbing crap everywhere. Anyone is capable of this type of crime... not only Thais or only Farang. In fact most Thais I've spoken to fully acknowledge that a Thai is very capable of this sort of thing. Prayuth said similar a couple of days ago.

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It is unfortunate that the authorities come out with loads of BS prematurely. In typical Thai fashion, something must be said instantly, usually with little thought or evidence. After all is said and done I would not be surprised if it came back on some bar workers or fishermen etc.. I can't believe it was a single perp, and I think the nature of the male rape is key. It's grisly stuff, but without knowing any forensic details it is hard to evaluate the crime. And that goes for not just me and you, but the police as well. Wait for the lab results before blabbing crap everywhere. Anyone is capable of this type of crime... not only Thais or only Farang. In fact most Thais I've spoken to fully acknowledge that a Thai is very capable of this sort of thing. Prayuth said similar a couple of days ago.

Not too sure that it is typically a Thai phenomenon. I had to watch Sky news for a few years and their reporters always demanded instant statements. Personally pitty the Thai authorities if certain British news outlets are hounding them. They are always able to give the latest updates when the reporter is actually in the next door country?

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I am quite surprised that General Prayuth has made statements that the holidaymakers should have known better than to leave themselves vulnerable by venturing out in the early hours on the island.

Good grief. I've never been there myself but have learnt the island is only three miles long . In theory you should feel 10 times safer in a small place like that in the early hours of the morning than in Bangkok or Pattaya ? If not, then Thailand really does have a problem with safetyermm.gif

Bangkok is a big place, island is small. Island is full of people on booze and drugs? No idea myself, never been, size is not everything.

Size alone may not matter but the fact that the entire resident population of the island assisted police the way they did with monitoring, who was coming and going from the island should make any wannabe criminal think twice.

Edited by Asiantravel
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Sad to see so many posters here taking the opportunity to bash Thailand from any angle, the police, the news reports, the investigation, perhaps the most remarkable one was where a poster wished that the UK police had been asked to investigate, how arrogant is that!

And for the poster who asked the question, should we demand the same penalty for a farang murderer as a local one, no, the penalty should be increased because the assumed educational levels are higher in the UK than in Thailand, a Brit murderer really would have had every opportunity to learn that what he had doing was wrong.

You obviously have little experience with the BIB. Ever heard of Kirsty Jones? Or several other massively high profile cases where the BIB have been proven to be completely and utterly inept at solving this type of violent crime.

The one about the policeman who shot a toruist in the head, was then bailed, threatened all the witnesses while on bail, got away with it, and was then found guiilty of shooting his wife was also a good and very unfunny one.

They won't have any reasonable forensics or evidence gathering to a western standard. Guaranteed. And so far they are working on the, "she had a lot of boyfriends and were out late so were asking for it" line.

Yes, UK police and forensic work is very advanced, the Thai equivalent is less so. But life is a series of trade offs, if people want to live in a society where those things are important, they shouldn't live or visit here. Suggesting that the UK police should be called in to investigate a crime in Thailand shows a deep lack of understanding of Thai/Asian culture, if you are suggesting such a move would be optimal I might be able to agree, if you seriously think it would be a viable and practical option, I cannot.

Actually the Pol Sgt Uthai, who murdered Canadian, Leo del Pinto, in Pai, later beat his "wife", an uneducated 18-year old hill tribe girl, to death with a piece of wood, rather than giving her the chance of a quick and painless death by shooting. The commander of the police region supported Uthai's incredulous story that he shot del Pinto in self defence but forensic evidence did not. You are right in saying that del Pinto's girlfriend from home, Carly Ressig, who was also shot by the intoxicated Uthai was blamed to the murder and her own shooting by local media and some farang commentators because she had being seeing a Thai man before del Pinto came out to join her. She was a denounced as a slug who "asked for it" by sleeping around and failing to respect Thai culture, despite the fact that a large section of Thailand's tourist industry is based on prostitution and has been for decades.

Welsh police who came to Thailand to investigate the murder of Kirsty Jones in Chiang Mai several times were persistently stone walled by Thai police. The Welsh officers strongly implied that they believed the murder was committed by a Thai tourist police officer. It was also suggested by Thai police that Jones had consensual sex with her murdered and was therefore to blame.

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Is it just me, or is the Daily Mail blocked in Thailand? And why in the world would this second rate rag be banned here?

It's just you.

Why in the world do you want information from this second rate rag?

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A horrendous crime. Whoever did it, deserves whatever comes his way. I would not discount a westerner or another Brit killing them. There are all sorts of drugs out there which simply make people do crazy things. Just saying.

It has come to light that bath salts and spice, two lethal, legally available drugs, may be behind some of these attacks. These drugs can be smoked or snorted and they are given seductive names like "Ivory Wave" or innocuous monikers like "bath salts" for deceptive marketing. They induce a furor in users, as violent as the combined effect of PCP and methamphetamines, and the result is an oral aggression of the sort that leads users to pounce on their victims and bite and maul them to pieces.

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I really wish when something like this happens they'd immediately invite the British to rush some of their best people to aid in the investigation.

If nothing else it would show concern, and also prove transparency in the investigation.

Why on earth would the British police be any help here?

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There's very little being said baout Koh Tao, which, indeed, was a divers' paradise. A lot has changed in the last 10 years, more so in the last 5, and very little for the better. I won't start a description of all those changes here and now, but just focus on one, which could have some link with the murders: drugs. 'Before', most tourists went to Tao only for the day, or no longer than a few, nearly exclusively for diving, and most Farangs who were staying there were some way involved with diving. There was nearly only one 'drug' available: grass, all other, stronger drugs not going that well together with diving, maybe a little cocaine brought by visitors. Nowadays, it seems Tao has rather become a 'drugs paradise' with ALL drugs easily available, up to the strongest and most dangerous ones, including the newest stuff. And when I hear youths speak about going to Tao, there are still some speaking only about diving, but not the majority, diving is still on the 'to do list' for most, but many, more and more I'd say, go there for drugs related 'partying' and stay " 3 - 4days or a week there. Some new dealers might have come up, but for sure many important ones from Pha Ngan, and Samui, seem to have been dividing the new cake Tao among themselves, and the police, well, they do the same as on Samui and on Pha Ngan, the small force making them even 'rely' on the known maffias to 'regulate' the market...

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Lets just hope this isn't the guy who discovered them or merely a witness to the crime.

Most people from Europe (especially at their ages) will never have seen one of their friends / acquaintances lying dead and would probably attempt to 'wake up' the victim before realising the extent of the injuries.

My worry is that this guy could be a witness.

If I witnessed a crime of this nature here I suspect I would be in immediate risk and would need to take drastic action for my own safety, of course that would depend on what I'd seen and who did it.

If he proves guilty I hope he gets a long sentence.

Edited by ukrules
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Sad to see so many posters here taking the opportunity to bash Thailand from any angle, the police, the news reports, the investigation, perhaps the most remarkable one was where a poster wished that the UK police had been asked to investigate, how arrogant is that!

And for the poster who asked the question, should we demand the same penalty for a farang murderer as a local one, no, the penalty should be increased because the assumed educational levels are higher in the UK than in Thailand, a Brit murderer really would have had every opportunity to learn that what he had doing was wrong.

You obviously have little experience with the BIB. Ever heard of Kirsty Jones? Or several other massively high profile cases where the BIB have been proven to be completely and utterly inept at solving this type of violent crime.

The one about the policeman who shot a toruist in the head, was then bailed, threatened all the witnesses while on bail, got away with it, and was then found guiilty of shooting his wife was also a good and very unfunny one.

They won't have any reasonable forensics or evidence gathering to a western standard. Guaranteed. And so far they are working on the, "she had a lot of boyfriends and were out late so were asking for it" line.

Actually the Pol Sgt Uthai, who murdered Canadian, Leo del Pinto, in Pai, later beat his "wife", an uneducated 18-year old hill tribe girl, to death with a piece of wood, rather than giving her the chance of a quick and painless death by shooting. The commander of the police region supported Uthai's incredulous story that he shot del Pinto in self defence but forensic evidence did not. You are right in saying that del Pinto's girlfriend from home, Carly Ressig, who was also shot by the intoxicated Uthai was blamed to the murder and her own shooting by local media and some farang commentators because she had being seeing a Thai man before del Pinto came out to join her. She was a denounced as a slut who "asked for it" by sleeping around and failing to respect Thai culture. This seems at variance with the the reality that a large section of Thailand's tourist industry is based on prostitution, which is a part of Thai culture and has been for centuries.

Welsh police who came to Thailand to investigate the murder of Kirsty Jones in Chiang Mai several times were persistently stone walled by Thai police. The Welsh officers strongly implied that they believed the murder was committed by a Thai tourist police officer. It was also suggested by Thai police that Jones had consensual sex with her murdered and was therefore to blame.

Now Prayuth seems to be trying to imply that farang women are responsible for crimes committed against them, if they wear bikinis, unless they are ugly. Whatever next?

Edited by Dogmatix
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Let's hope there's more genuine evidence than ' seen strolling near the scene ', I presume if it's him he was strolling before and not after the crime.

They have found a bloodstain on his clothes but wasn't he already interviewed and allowed to go and the stain wasn't seen then ?

I'm not saying he's innocent but the BIB get everything arse for elbow and it raises doubt especially when told from the very top to get it solved ' yesterday '.

Let's be clear, the police are looking for any suspect that is not Thai, cause we all know that Thais never get angry or violent with the foreign guests.

It would be very convenient if a fellow Brit could be found guilty as then Thailand would remain a safe place to visit except for the occasional deranged Brit.

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Thailand has one of the world's highest per-capita murder rates – when the UN last counted it in 2000, it stood at 5,140 per year, though the annual total is now speculated to be more than 6,000.

(aren't you alway the one insisting on comparing like with like, here we are comparing deaths of foreign visitors of 1 nationality)

360 British died in Thailand in the last 12 months. Up to you how you believe they died.

But anyway you look at it, you are 10x more likely to die visiting Thailand than you are visiting Spain.

(If you are British)

Thailand isn't remotely close to one of the world's highest per capita murder rate.

It is below average globally, and just slightly above the rate of the US. The murder rate has fallen substantially since your 2000 statistic too, there were only 3,307 murders in 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#By_country

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Sad to see so many posters here taking the opportunity to bash Thailand from any angle, the police, the news reports, the investigation, perhaps the most remarkable one was where a poster wished that the UK police had been asked to investigate, how arrogant is that!

And for the poster who asked the question, should we demand the same penalty for a farang murderer as a local one, no, the penalty should be increased because the assumed educational levels are higher in the UK than in Thailand, a Brit murderer really would have had every opportunity to learn that what he had doing was wrong.

You think its arrogant that some posters on here might question the clear incompetence of the thai police, and as it involves a British national (victim) and a British national (accused) that we would want detectives from the UK will be invited to Thailand to help with enquiries (same as the Maddy Mccann case and many others)

Oh sorry, loss of face, completely forgot ..

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It would be very convenient if a fellow Brit could be found guilty as then Thailand would remain a safe place to visit except for the occasional deranged Brit.

The British foreign Office seems to think a British visitor to Thailand is 17x more likely to be murdered than that same person visiting any other country.

(Gleaned from the info, 10% of British citizens murdered overseas happen in Thailand, but Thailand only accounts for 0.6% of British overseas travel)

When asked why this information was not made public, an official said, it would have an unfair effect on Thai business interests.

Edited by AnotherOneAmerican
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