Terrified Briton flees Koh Tao after 'mafia' death threat

[i claudius]

Well they should be able to get CCTV footage of this incident and witnesses.

Because its a load of bullshit.

[almafudd]

I Wouldnt ever be going back to Koh Tao, not now its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets. ill happily tell others to avoid KT at all costs, its crap for diving as they have killed off most of the sealife years ago and thats really the only reason to be on KT its not phi phi or samui.. go somewhere else safer not so corrupt and spend the cash there.

People can influence things by talking to others, once it becomes common enough knowledge thats that.

Its amazing how thick some posters can be.... especially the rose glass wearing ones, they really seem to think Thailand is run like a western democratic system... with western values, western thought process, western morals ...

Those who think sean is lying need to get out more here , its exactly what Thailand has been trying to point the finger at, a foreigner since it began and some think this is a made up story ?... oh boy do you not have a clue about Thailand.

"its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets"

​ALL Thais and ALL OF Thailand have this attitude to some degree

But the reality is they are an uneducated race who are in a slow self-destruct mode (all be it that it will take many years for them to completely fall to bits).

There are many other CHEAPER, less CORRUPT, FRIENDLIER and more BEAUTIFUL countries in the world!

[almafudd]

Please some facts, utter speculation.

The sun will set today... That is a FACT

[Iumentum]

I Wouldnt ever be going back to Koh Tao, not now its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets. ill happily tell others to avoid KT at all costs, its crap for diving as they have killed off most of the sealife years ago and thats really the only reason to be on KT its not phi phi or samui.. go somewhere else safer not so corrupt and spend the cash there.

People can influence things by talking to others, once it becomes common enough knowledge thats that.

Its amazing how thick some posters can be.... especially the rose glass wearing ones, they really seem to think Thailand is run like a western democratic system... with western values, western thought process, western morals ...

Those who think sean is lying need to get out more here , its exactly what Thailand has been trying to point the finger at, a foreigner since it began and some think this is a made up story ?... oh boy do you not have a clue about Thailand.

"its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets"

​ALL Thais and ALL OF Thailand have this attitude to some degree

But the reality is they are an uneducated race who are in a slow self-destruct mode (all be it that it will take many years for them to completely fall to bits).

There are many other CHEAPER, less CORRUPT, FRIENDLIER and more BEAUTIFUL countries in the world!

Such statements are totally uncalled for, and not needed.

Thanks for not posting any further discriminating comments in this debate!

[farang000999]

So who is this guy on the left in the photo Sean took?

We know he is standing on the beach talking to a policeman at the crime scene. It has now been reported he refused to give a DNA sample. It appears he is also the same guy running in the CCTV footage (same size, basic appearance, hairstyle, and has an earring in his left ear). We know Sean took a photo of him looking into the store where he was hiding out (regardless of whether he is right or wrong in his claims about being threatened with hanging). There are also claims that this guy owns 2 resorts on Koh Tao. I think it would be fair to say that for someone to own 2 resorts on Koh Tao, this person would have to be well known and probably well connected.

So what we have is a guy who has popped up 3 times, may own two resorts, is known to police and the community, and is likely well connected due to the fact he didn’t have to give DNA and owns said resorts. Considering the flimsy evidence with which they detained everyone else, this guy should definitely be in custody. Unless…..

Let’s assume there are influential families running Koh Tao and this fellow belongs to one of them. The question then becomes, what is more likely…… Solving this case and blowing the lid in a very public way that Thailand (or parts of) are controlled by influential mafia type families causing huge embarrassment to the country. Or, the pretense of a genuine investigation which in fact is a giant farce buying time for the police until they can find an acceptable scapegoat on to whom they can pin this with minimal national embarrassment.

He does not look like a resort owner.

[Fat Haggis]

How many 7/11 workers could you borrow a phone from that have INTERNATIONAL call availability, to call your mum and sister?

BS - He's lying.

How many 7/11 workers do you know that have enough credit to call International numbers?

Even my own wife rarely has anymore then 200-300 baht credit on her phone, and I don't tend to have much more in mine either when I'm at home.

The intelligence of some TV posters is shocking

1.) He was in 7-11 did you know they sell phone cards there he could of easily purchased them and put on the 7-11 assistants phone

2.) Most thais I know have smart phones that means you can make an international call directly from the internet using Skype for example.

I believe the kid and it is not hard to believe that the island mafia is in control of the situation

So is the reading comprehension of some posters too, because if you took the time to read a little bit further and my comments after I wrote this, it would be a little bit clearer, but you chose to see what you only wanted to see.

They sell top up cards do 7-11 do they? Thats's odd as every time I top up in 7/11's it was always till receipts as in slips of paper with the codes on them. Must be a different 7/11 that you get top up cards from.

As for point 2, I already covered that skype and viber are common, again if you had read THROUGH all my posts you'd have seen that, but crack on being selective and acting like a know it all...

[razer]

Local mafias are more powerful than the government.

[mataleo]

After reading through a lot of information, one things strikes me as particularly odd. The two men in the photo, both leaning over the counter, have neither been detained nor questioned in any depth, as well as their refusal to give a DNA sample. The other, more telling aspect, is that their names have not been mentioned at all. Now, on the other hand, the newspapers have written up names and ages of other people who have been questioned, DNA sampled and subsequently found to have nothing to do with the unfortunate incident.

Yeh thats what hits me as well. Even speedboat crew we get names and age even they clear..

[steven100]

"He fled, took refuge in a nearby supermarket and was only able to leave when police were called and arrived on the scene at around 5am. They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made."

What a major clusterf#<k!!! Great police work! The whole western world is looking at this case right now, and the effen police let two prime suspects run, after they have made death threads to a friend of the vicitms???

\/\/TF is going on here?????

Thailand, hub of stupidity This make me so angry, I just wanna scream... Un-I=uck!ng-believable!!!!!

Put the whole island population in the slammer, including local police and run forced DNA tests until the suspect is caught!

Are you from the UK by any chance ?

How do you know this guy is straight up and telling the truth ?

You are simply writing your comment based on what you read.... so you read it and it all must be true ??

What do they arrest these two suspicious characters on .. ? insinuating threats ?

The story may need further investigation before any arrest could be made ....

Lets wait and see what develops out of this information before jumping to bar stool conclusions ....

[mataleo]

We should mass email bangkok post everybody... demand and pressure...

[almafudd]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11111532/Thai-island-murder-investigation-hits-a-wall-of-silence.html

"The last known images of Hannah Witheridge were taken at 12.07am as she walked past a diving resort on the way to the AC Bar with two men and one woman whose names are thought to be Matt, Tom and Emma.

Speak up guys. If you feel you can't then go throug the media if you have to. Knowing what happened both AT and between AC Bar and the beach could massively influence this investigation.

&lt;deleted&gt;? What are you talking about TROLL!

Member for 4 days and you post this &lt;deleted&gt;.

[Maejo Man]

I Wouldnt ever be going back to Koh Tao, not now its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets. ill happily tell others to avoid KT at all costs, its crap for diving as they have killed off most of the sealife years ago and thats really the only reason to be on KT its not phi phi or samui.. go somewhere else safer not so corrupt and spend the cash there.

People can influence things by talking to others, once it becomes common enough knowledge thats that.

Its amazing how thick some posters can be.... especially the rose glass wearing ones, they really seem to think Thailand is run like a western democratic system... with western values, western thought process, western morals ...

Those who think sean is lying need to get out more here , its exactly what Thailand has been trying to point the finger at, a foreigner since it began and some think this is a made up story ?... oh boy do you not have a clue about Thailand.

"its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets"

​ALL Thais and ALL OF Thailand have this attitude to some degree

But the reality is they are an uneducated race who are in a slow self-destruct mode (all be it that it will take many years for them to completely fall to bits).

There are many other CHEAPER, less CORRUPT, FRIENDLIER and more BEAUTIFUL countries in the world!

Such statements are totally uncalled for, and not needed.

Thanks for not posting any further discriminating comments in this debate!

The truth often hurts!

[mataleo]

presume now Bangkok Post has made changes online (to Scottish) that paper version will carry an apology tomorrow http://t.co/S9OxGaGnYo

[Iumentum]

I Wouldnt ever be going back to Koh Tao, not now its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets. ill happily tell others to avoid KT at all costs, its crap for diving as they have killed off most of the sealife years ago and thats really the only reason to be on KT its not phi phi or samui.. go somewhere else safer not so corrupt and spend the cash there.

People can influence things by talking to others, once it becomes common enough knowledge thats that.

Its amazing how thick some posters can be.... especially the rose glass wearing ones, they really seem to think Thailand is run like a western democratic system... with western values, western thought process, western morals ...

Those who think sean is lying need to get out more here , its exactly what Thailand has been trying to point the finger at, a foreigner since it began and some think this is a made up story ?... oh boy do you not have a clue about Thailand.

"its clear how much Thais there care about the truth vs their pockets"

​ALL Thais and ALL OF Thailand have this attitude to some degree

But the reality is they are an uneducated race who are in a slow self-destruct mode (all be it that it will take many years for them to completely fall to bits).

There are many other CHEAPER, less CORRUPT, FRIENDLIER and more BEAUTIFUL countries in the world!

Such statements are totally uncalled for, and not needed.

Thanks for not posting any further discriminating comments in this debate!

The truth often hurts!

lol, trying to imply that his statement would hurt me? Well guess what, i am not thai.

I just got what is called courtesy, and i just dislike people stereotyping much. I can agree with some of what he say, but saying that "ALL" and "ALL OF", is just ridiculous. Also saying that thai is an uneducated race is even more so, and very uneducated to state because thai is not a race.

[Bleacher Bum East]

There is one possible scenario that would reconcile the questions/comments of those who believe Sean is telling the truth with those who vouch for the guy in the photo that Sean took in the mini-mart (who was also in the photo taken on the beach the morning after the murder).

Here is what could have happened:

The Thai guy in the photo--who is not the owner of AC bar as I understand it--believed Sean had something to do with the murder (the guitar player singing Western songs on the beach?) or knows what happened.

He approached Sean in the bar and said something to the effect of: "You have two lives on your hands ... tonight you are going to hang yourself ... and we are going watch you do it."

Understandably, Sean immediately bolted out of the bar.

What the Thai man was really saying, using idioms, was "I think you were involved or know something, and tonight you are going to go to the police and tell them everything you know and give a DNA sample, and we are going to watch you do it."

This would explain why they didn't just kidnap him somewhere out of sight, take him someplace quiet, hang him, and frame him for the murder as you would expect if they were serious. It would also explain why they just sat there and let him take their photo and make phone calls without grabbing the phone and destroying it.

Remember Sean did not accuse them of the crime on FB, he accused a different bar owner.

Of course it doesn't explain why, if true, these two guy refused to have their DNA taken (although there could be plenty of reasons for that---if the police have their DNA on file they could be nailed for other types of less violent crimes as well).

It also doesn't eliminate the possibility that they were forcing Sean to go to the police and confess to a crime he didn't commit or risk becoming a victim himself, or the possibility that they really did intend to harm him and/or frame him.

But the scenario I presented is at least a possible explanation of most of the questions on both sides about how this went down with Sean. I am not implying in any way that Sean actually had anything to do with the murders.

BTW, the BP said the "British national" had witnessed Hannah being molested in the bar ... but I'm pretty sure Sean had told the British press he had not met up with David the night of the murders. Although he could have seen her being harassed a previous night.

I also want to say that what I've posted here contradicts everything I personally believe happened--that a local well-connected Thai lost face publicly and took his revenge by killing David and Hannah. But maybe everyone on the island does not want to protect the killer, and some are still trying to either find out who did it or give the police the evidence required to arrest the killer. Not sure I believe this either, but it's possible.

[mataleo]

and now here with the revised news and nationality: "Scottish tourist 'can ID killers' MT Bangkok Post http://t.co/UFfWokPVoK

[webfact]

Frightened British tourist says Thai Mafia may have killed the two British tourists in Koh Tao



BANGKOK: -- As Thai police now said they have obtained photograph of two Thai men while sexually harassing the British tourist Hannah Witheridge and assaulting her friend David Miller while trying to protect her at a beach bar, another British man who was friend to David recalled the nightmare on the night of the murder to British newspapers today of being threatened with life by Thai mafias who tried to force him to admit to the murder of the two victims.

He fled the Thai island where two British backpackers were murdered last week after claiming the “mafia” was trying to hang him, according to the UK-based The Telegraph newspapers.

The papers said Sean McAnna, 25, from Shotts near Glasgow, was a friend of David Miller, the tourist whose body was found last Monday on Koh Tao island along with that of Hannah Witheridge.

Sean McAnna, 26, from, Shotts, Lanarkshire, made the allegations on Facebook at 4am after he fled and took refuge in a 24 hour convenience store on the island and posted a picture he took of his alleged pursuers.

He also identified whom he believed was one of the killers.

And he asked for Sky Television to phone him. McAnna was quickly given consular advice and protected by friends until he caught a ferry off the island later in the day. His posts were taken down.

Sean McAnna later revealed how he slept all night in the jungle and then for a while around 7 am this morning under a snooker table in a bar.

In the early hours of the morning he had been drinking in a beach bar when he was accused by two Thais of being the killer he was allegedly the guitarist in a group of people singing on the beach on the morning of Hannah and David’s murders.

You have blood on your hands, they said adding that he should be strung up and hanged from a tree. He fled the bar and took refuge in the convenience story pursed by the two men, he said. That’s when he took the picture.

“So I just ran. I just left and ran.”

Mr McAnna claimed that two Thai men, who he believes may have crucial information about the murders, threatened to kill him in the early hours of Monday morning while he was drinking at a bar on Sairee beach near to where their disfigured bodies were discovered.

He fled, took refuge in a nearby supermarket and was only able to leave when police were called and arrived on the scene at around 5am. They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

He later posted on his Facebook recalling the nightmare in Koh Tao trying to flee from the Mafia who he said might have information.

With those two men still at large, Mr McAnna said he spent the day in hiding before fleeing Koh Tao fearing he could be killed if he stayed.

“I need to get off this island,” a tearful and visibly nervous Mr McAnna told The Telegraph during an interview conducted inside the back of a taxi before he departed.

“I genuinely thought that was the day I was going to die,” Mr McAnna said. “I genuinely thought that this was me dead. That I was gone.”
“I phoned my mum, I phoned my sister. I told her I loved her and that I would try and make it home. I said that if this was going to be the last conversation that we had then it was a really sad one to have but she’s been great and I love her.”

Mr McAnna met Mr Miller last year while both men were living in Leeds. He was the singer and guitarist in a Leeds band called These Fading Polaroids and Mr Miller was an engineering student. Both lived in the Hyde Park area.

Sean McAnna was a friend of David Miller.

Mr McAnna said he recently returned to Koh Tao – where he had previously spent 18 months living and working as a barman – and had planned but failed to meet Mr Miller on the night he and Ms Witheridge were murdered.

Locals appear reluctant to discuss the case, apparently fearing reprisals from mafia-style families who are said to control Koh Tao.

Mr McAnna said he believed it was people linked to one such group who threatened to kill him. At around 2.30am he was accosted by two Thai men at Koh Tao’s AC Bar, a beach front nightclub where Mr Miller and Ms Witheridge had been just before they were murdered.
“They just said to me: ‘It was you who killed them. You’ve got two people’s deaths on your hands. We know it was you. You’re going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang. You will die tonight.’”
“So I just ran. I just left and ran,” he said.

Mr McAnna said he did not know if the men who threatened him were directly involved in his friend’s murder. However, he did believe they had key information about the murders and were attempting to make him a “scapegoat” for the killings.

“I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was. They need a scapegoat and they don’t want it to be locals. They want it to be a westerner. So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say: ‘See, it was him.’”

Mr McAnna posted information about the alleged threats on his Facebook page at around 4am on Monday and issued a desperate plea for help. “Thai mafia are trying to kill me. Please help me,” he wrote.

He said he also spoke to Foreign Office officials in London over the telephone. After being taken from the supermarket by Thai police, Mr McAnna said he spent the rest of the night hiding from the men he feared were going to kill him in the jungle.
“I was scared s*******. I was really scared. So I kept moving every thirty minutes in case anybody had seen me. I would move from one part, to the next part in case there was anyone close that had seen me and could send someone.”
Mr McAnna rejected the men’s claims that had been involved killing his friend and Ms Witheridge. “Of course I had nothing to do with it.” Prachum Ruangthong, the police chief responsible for Koh Tao, confirmed that Mr McAnna had been asked to provide DNA samples as part of investigations into the murders but was not considered a suspect.

The police chief denied receiving reports of death threats against Mr McAnna even though he met him on Monday morning and told the British traveller: “I am sensitive about your feelings. You don’t worry, ok?”
Two Thai men were questioned about the incident but they were not arrested. The police chief said he would guarantee the Briton’s security while he remained on Koh Tao.
After spending much of Monday in hiding, Mr McAnna travelled to the island’s port with a group of British reporters at around 2.30pm.

He left Koh Tao on a passenger ferry at 3.10 pm.

The 25-year-old Scot vowed never to return to an island that markets itself as a paradise for divers and partiers. “I’m done here,” he said, adding that he would only feel truly safe once he had flown out of Thailand. “Something could still happen to me in the next 24 hours.”

(Photo : telegraph.co.uk)

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/frightened-british-tourist-says-thai-mafia-may-killed-two-british-tourists-koh-tao/


-- Thai PBS 2014-09-23

[Neeranam]

i have warned all my friends not to go there because it IS OWNED BY MOB. now they believe me. sure if you are into drugs you can always get it cheap and easy ... especially if you are a pretty girl. i have met dozens of friends who hook up with mob just for free drugs. those who obstruct justice ... must be punished.

If you rule out going to restaurants or bars owned by mob/police in tourist places, you'll go hungry.

[dotpoom]

So they're still trying to pin it on a foreigner.

I don't see why the new Prime Minister doesn't send the army into this lawless place and audit everyone who lives there to weed out the seemingly endemic corruption.

Martial law is still in effect isn't it ?

Who are these 5 families who are so important that even the prime minister can't touch them ?

The mafia are the ones that are trying to pin it on a foreigner.....the police are testing all males on the island.

[Neilly]

Right ..

Have you never made photo where you did something silly just for the laugh? Well i did, and i sure that many of us has done so.

Also, even if this guy was/is abusing drugs, doesn't mean that this event should just be dismissed.

Please tell me, do you have some kind of relation to Koh Tao? What is your interest in trying to bury this story? If something is fishy around here, it's your whole approach to this debate!

A rather more normal pic of the same stunt...titled 'Chilling in Thailand'

[robsamui]

Silly..dna already showed that semen came from asians...not westerner.

Hang on a minute here - this is the same police force that have on several occasions in the last few years conclusively "proved" the identity of killers by linking their DNA to evidence.

Now they bluster about, forced to admit that they don't have the technology - all they can do is to say whether the donor was male or female.

Then they have to send the DNA to Singapore - if anything can be believed about the conclusions from this.

This is the same police force that didn't seal off the island or prevent any of the private boats from leaving. The same police that stated publicly that "no Thai person could have done this"

If anyone - ANYONE - believes one single word of any statement issued by the police then they haven't even got the sense they were born with..

The only possibly truthful statement to date goes . . . . "we haven't got a clue who the killer is" - and even that is dubious given the close connections between local police and affluent local families.

Keep your eyes out for the forthcoming "confession" of a Thai boat boy found hiding in a cave on Samui, incoherent due to massive doses of brain-numbing amphetamines (of course) - that'll do nicely for a public scapegoat.

But it won't find the killers.

[PREM-R]

Please some facts, utter speculation.

The sun will set today... That is a FACT

As this is Thai Visa forum I am surprised that no one has jumped on you to provide 'Links' to this information. 555

[yougivemebaby]

Dear thai police. I sure hope you looked into this cigarette more that you found the killers DNA on. Seems if the killers were sharing a cigarette they must have been running low. You know the brand they smoked. So go to all 7-11s and check the slips for when someone purchased more cigarettes of this type and brand. Look at the camera footage around the times of the homicides. Maybe you will get some new leads. 7-11 has good cameras. If you don't find new good leads. I would be surprised. Xoxo

[traviss]

A lot of this I mentioned already in other threads and the longer this farce is going on, the

​more it seems, I might not be that wrong with my "assumptions"

I hope people don't suddenly think there could be some very, very powerful people with some

real spoiled kids here on the islands under the protection of even bigger friends high up? Well,

even higher up. Don't think things like that couldn't happen, now could we?

IF and I don't suggest it is, there is some island "family" involvement, every family would be

involved by now and most likely be a silent wall to the "outsiders". Even if they might find a

"scape goat" to satisfy "outsiders" I'm fairly sure the culprits IF local, will NOT get away with

it. Too much at stake and not just money. Lets say a bit like "same, same" as Cosa Nostra

but "different". Not at all same as BKK, Phuket, Pattaya or even the bigger sister island Koh

Samui, which is much more close and "connected" with the mainland.

Now don't think those clans are just a few local fisherman, coconut farmers or 'druggies".

Sure there might be a couple but many are very successful and educated business men,

not stupid or crooks and are sure very much aware of the implications if this doesn't get

sorted in a way or another. Islanders all over the world have since generations sorted out

their own "problems" and got away with it as long it didn't involve the outside. I'm sure,

justice will be served eventually, maybe just not for "outsiders" to know.

Same applies to some of the small, more secluded beaches here on the islands with their

own "governor". Even disputes "who is the boss" will be settled within their "seclusion" and

nothing will be known 10 miles away. I've been there, I know what it feels to be threatened

by a crazy Thai on yaba, I know what it feels having a loaded weapon pointed at my brain.

I instantly moved out and found safety by one of the "Thai Family" right next door. Sure it

could have gone badly wrong for me too and I can guarantee you, if it would have happen,

the same Family who gave me protection would have protected him now.

Now as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said: "Sometimes it's not good to speak too much ..."

After all, talking badly about a man's island is a little like taking badly about his children. - My

kids may be rotten to the core (I promise they weren't …. at least most of the time ), but while

I'm allowed to say so you, most assuredly, are not.

"Lets say a bit like "same, same" as Cosa Nostra but "different". You fall short with your understanding of La Costa Nostra. There is absolutely no comparison to be made or implied regarding LCN to the ignorant and mindless Thai same-same but different mentality.

[traviss]

I'm a sceptic too. I might be unfair to the young man but how can he work as a 'barman' for 18 months on the island?. Work permit? Sounds fishy to me.

Many western barmen on Koh Tao and other islands don't have permits, what does that have to do with his credibility as a murder witness?

Willingness to not recognize or simply break the law.

[traviss]

This is the same guy who posted about the killers on his Facebook page, which are now all over Twitter.

I read the Facebook thing before it was taken out.

He was posting the pics of the guys who chased him down.

He said "If I die, - "They did it". I think he meant that they were HIS killers -

- NOT Hanna's and David's.

Fortunately that never came to fruition.

My understanding also...

[SOTIRIOS]

The busker – dubbed "Guitarman" - has been cleared by police.

But he has angered locals by talking openly about the crime and today had to get a 9am ferry off the island fearing for his life.

they chased him into a 24-hour convenience shop at 4am saying they would hang him and make it look like he had committed suicide.

They questioned the two Thai men but no arrests were made.

.........................................

....is it inflammatory to quote others......

....'better a flattering lie than and an uncomplimentary truth'.....

...the truth can be brutal.........shocking......disgusting........don't blame the victims...........or the messengers.....

[Lammbock]

Good to hear that he got away a life. Now just fly back to London and chill out. There are many other Paradises in the World to explore.

[jspill]

Willingness to not recognize or simply break the law.

Good job courts only consider character evidence admissible if relevant to the crime with which a person is accused. Otherwise unpaid parking tickets could convince a jury you did it.

[Fat Haggis]

There were half a dozen or so "tourists" dive instructors from Koh Tao at Ventienne last month when I went to get my visa, there were Amercians, I recognised them from the week before when I was there.

There's dozens of dive instructors and bar staff without visas or permits on ALL the Islands.. going to the police wouldn't be high on their agenda as they're there illegally !!