Jack's plight for justice in Samui after an attack leaves him with mounting medical bills

[webfact]

Jack's plight for justice in Samui after an attack leaves him with mounting medical bills

KOH SAMUI: -- Jack is n Australian man who has lived in Thailand for the last 15 years. After his graduation in Bangkok he came to Koh Samui with some friends to celebrate. During his trip he was attacked by two Chinese/USA men while dancing in the Green Mango night club on ht 9th of June. The attackers fled the scene but were later arrested. Jack was giving emergency surgery at a local hospital for extensive injuries to his mouth.

Six weeks after being arrested the men were taken to court where their passports were withheld after evidence emerged that the men were taking vacations that were not part of the ‘essential travel only’ section of their bail conditions. At this point the men filed charges themselves against Jack claiming, despite their lack of injuries, that he had beaten them.

Apart from the trauma of facing being in jail himself at one point, when he could not raise bail for charges such as ‘an attack that did not cause physical or mental injury’ and a misdemeanor charge filed by the attackers, Jack now faces 18 months of further costly reconstructive surgeries as well as mounting legal costs.

A fun has now been set up for Jack to help with those costs while he attempts to not only recover but fight for justice in Koh Samui.

To visit the fund page please click here

Fore more information visit the Facbook with a click here

-- Samui Times 2014-12-02

[terryp]

this is another perfect example of what people with money and influance can do in the thai legal system...basically turn the crime commited upside down so now the guy shown is being taken to court????

The laws in thailand are a joke and anyone can be put into a situation like this...always be on your guard

[slipperx]

The laws inThailand are not a joke. There are very basic and poorly written with huge loopholes. The real problem is the corruption that riddles the entire unethical and unprofessional crooked lawyer base that abuses the law, the absurdly inefficient Procedure codes and the willingness of judges to entertain obviously spurious cases.

[mihalis]

The accused were Chinese-Americans.... Aren't the able to chase them in USA.. And what about travel insurance, has that not covered much..

[sfbandung]

He looks young. Where are his parents? Been in Thailand for 15 years, he must have grown up here then. Something is missing here.

[ezzra]

I don't understand why the Australian embassy not helping and arranging for his repatriation back to OZ

and help in settling the medical bills with the guarantee of the family that those cost will be paid,

There were similar cases before and the embassy with in it's power and mandate to be of an assistance here,

why do they keep mom on the issue? dose any one knows? what is the embassy for than?

for a cushy job overseas and cocktail's parties?

[catman20]

just because this man lost the fight and ended up in hospital doesn't mean he is an innocent victim and did not start the fight. I've had similar Esperance here.

[smileydude]

Like the mandatory requirement of travel insurance for people requesting Schengen visa's perhaps it should be the same for those traveling to Thailand? I'm not sure if travel insurance would cover injury resulting from brawling but assuming this young man was attacked unprovoked he should be covered. Many young travelers here travel on a tight budget thus travel insurance should be high on their priority list considering the relatively reasonable rates versus the risks.

Like another other poster said, the Australian embassy should step in to help.

[sandhurstmolonski]

Terrible situation , he does however look like he's under 30 years to me ..Therefore has he been here since 15 years ?

If so , he must have family support , and there must have been some reason he was here so young ??

Either way , patch him up , get him back to Aussie for a while , let all cool down and he can come back . Its a little difficult when

the victim is also being pursued , its pretty obvious who came out worse on the physical side .

With the support fund , and some family help , Im sure he will be okey , but its not a nice situation .

There is now hefty penalties in Australia , with one punch legislation , need to get something similar in Thailand , although

on current form that highly unlikely .

[thaifamilyguy]

The cross charges are SOP in any situation like this, has nothing to do with what happened but with creating leverage. The idea being that both sides then settle the matter by dropping charges against each side. However, in this case it is extremely cynical as clearly the initial charges against the attackers were surely brought by the investigators not the poor boy and were brought after they were caught. It is possible that a minor charge can be brought w/out prosecutor's approval in some way so it may stand as something that has to be disposed of. The parents of the kids should be shot as not only did they raise kids that would do this, but are now teaching them to lie to save themselves from the consequences. The larger question, however, is corruption. The Thai government seems to be idiotic in understanding the effect of cases like this and Kho Tao. They have covered the gap in Tourists with increasing Mainland chinese tourist, etc., but ONE Chinese incident and they will experience a drop to 0% of arrivals overnight. I would say you can see the train wreck coming but in many ways its already here.

[thaifamilyguy]

For the posters, this is a well known story, kid was dancing and two pumped-up expat kids from Shanghai didn't like who he was dancing with and beat him savagely. I know they were down celebrating graduation from high school, nice "present" for a couple of 18-19 year olds. He was down from Bangkok I think also celebrating graduation from High School. Wrong place wrong time for sure but expats in Samui are watching this just as Kho Tao.

[DaveE13]

Terrible situation , he does however look like he's under 30 years to me ..Therefore has he been here since 15 years ?

If so , he must have family support , and there must have been some reason he was here so young ??

Either way , patch him up , get him back to Aussie for a while , let all cool down and he can come back . Its a little difficult when

the victim is also being pursued , its pretty obvious who came out worse on the physical side .

With the support fund , and some family help , Im sure he will be okey , but its not a nice situation .

There is now hefty penalties in Australia , with one punch legislation , need to get something similar in Thailand , although

on current form that highly unlikely .

The facebook page says he is 20.

[Mot Dang]

He looks young. Where are his parents? Been in Thailand for 15 years, he must have grown up here then. Something is missing here.

That is what I immediately thought. Growing up in Thailand then going to a Bangkok University and graduating (remember lectures are in Thai at Uni, and technical Thai is a whole different ball game to talat Thai). I'm not saying its not true, but that is not the norm. Usually falang kids who grow up in Thailand go home to continue with tertiary studies, because they just don't have the level of Thai needed. And yes where are the parents ? Additionally, if he is an Australian national, after such a long term in hospital why hasn't he again gone home. Something is not quite right with this reporting, or his story.

[Tropicalevo]

He lives in Thailand (so does his mother - I think) - travel insurance does not apply.

Also, he has to get to Australia to receive treatment (which would be free if he still has an Aussie passport). but getting there whilst flat on his back is REALLY expensive. Assuming that the police are not holding his passport pending his case.

His medical bills here will be racking up. Samui has the most expensive (rip off) private hospitals in the Kingdom (5 now.). The goverment hospital here is very good - but they could only treat his trauma and you definitely do not want to stay there for more than 2 - 3 days. General wards are basic, busy, and very noisy. Imagine living in a large room with 20 to 30 Thais. Private rooms have to be booked in advance. I have visited a number of friends/guests there over the years. There is always a waiting list for a private room, and if he were to get in one, a relative or friend would have to stay with him 24 hours a day. (Not enough nurses.)

Look here for further details

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/765820-australian-jack-hansen-bartel-a-victim-of-thailands-brutal-underbelly/

[ggt]

A national fund should be setup to pay hospital and legal costs for tourists who are mistreated in Thailand thru no fault of their on...

An automatic deduction will be taken from government officials...police and military paychecks as these are the people who are supposed to be providing protection for tourists...

It is expected that it will not be long before very few tourist are mistreated once the deductions start appearing on the Thai paychecks...

[The Usual Suspect]

This is a young guy. Where are his family?

[harrycallahan]

I don't understand why the Australian embassy not helping and arranging for his repatriation back to OZ

and help in settling the medical bills with the guarantee of the family that those cost will be paid,

They aren't critical injuries. Lost teeth, severely torn lip, fracture maybe. They were already living in Thailand and given the cheaper medical care might be a better place to see it through. Australia has public health care though teeth are considered cosmetic, and can be a chore getting treatment as a public patient.

[JenniferSG]

He looks young. Where are his parents? Been in Thailand for 15 years, he must have grown up here then. Something is missing here.

That is mostly explained in the text on the Go Fund Me page.

[JenniferSG]

A national fund should be setup to pay hospital and legal costs for tourists who are mistreated in Thailand thru no fault of their on...

An automatic deduction will be taken from government officials...police and military paychecks as these are the people who are supposed to be providing protection for tourists...

It is expected that it will not be long before very few tourist are mistreated once the deductions start appearing on the Thai paychecks...

"tourists who are mistreated in Thailand thru no fault of their on..."

Given the article states he lives here for 15 years and is 20 years old, means he liked grew up here. Still a tourist?

Pretty interesting that you've decided that he had no fault in this altercation. Were you there? I've seen this story posted many many times and I find it very doubtful that 2 "men" (regardless of nationality) would start kicking the crap out of a foreign child without any previous history or provocation. I've seen and been involved in similar situations and there is ALWAYS something (previous history, flirting at the bar)

So...if he'd been flirting in the bar and these guys were mad that he got the girl's attentions and waited outside to jump him...somehow he is more at fault?

[Dogmatix]

The laws inThailand are not a joke. There are very basic and poorly written with huge loopholes. The real problem is the corruption that riddles the entire unethical and unprofessional crooked lawyer base that abuses the law, the absurdly inefficient Procedure codes and the willingness of judges to entertain obviously spurious cases.

The criminal code was written in the early part of the 20th century, based largely on French law but also drawing generously from British colonial laws. largely from the Indian penal code. Prince Ratchburi, on his return from his legal studies at Oxford, had strongly advocated an English common law system but that was dismissed out of a concern that it would not allow sufficient centralised control. In Asia it was the British colonial judicial systems, where the magistrates and judges were part of the colonial government service, that were admired for good reasons because they worked quite well in the context of the time and British colonial officials were relatively uncorrupt, as they were reasonably well looked after in terms of perks and pensions and feared being drummed out of society in disgrace if they were caught.

Consequently Thailand has a penal code which was deliberately left open to interpretation in many areas to provide for greater centralised control and a civil service judiciary that was largely modelled on something that had worked well when it was applied by expat officials in colonial settings. Nowadays the fact that judges are recruited straight from university on connections and have to work their up through the provincial courts to get back home to Bangkok creates a huge weakness and makes the judiciary a weak link that is as prone to corruption as everything else.

[Dogmatix]

He looks young. Where are his parents? Been in Thailand for 15 years, he must have grown up here then. Something is missing here.

His mother is a single parent Australian mom struggling to make ends meet and raise her kids in Bangkok. Don't what happened to the father.

[JenniferSG]

He looks young. Where are his parents? Been in Thailand for 15 years, he must have grown up here then. Something is missing here.

That is what I immediately thought. Growing up in Thailand then going to a Bangkok University and graduating (remember lectures are in Thai at Uni, and technical Thai is a whole different ball game to talat Thai). I'm not saying its not true, but that is not the norm. Usually falang kids who grow up in Thailand go home to continue with tertiary studies, because they just don't have the level of Thai needed. And yes where are the parents ? Additionally, if he is an Australian national, after such a long term in hospital why hasn't he again gone home. Something is not quite right with this reporting, or his story.

From the Go Fund Me page -

He is the child of a single mother. I would guess she works in Thailand.

Kid was on scholarship at the private, English language, NIST International School in Bangkok and planning to leave Thailand to attend Uni in Australia. (Also, it's not correct that lectures are always in Thai at Uni. Thammasat and CU (among others) have undergrad and graduate programs taught entirely in English.)

[DaveE13]

Reading all the info in this case he was flirting with a girl who is friends of the guys who beat him. I run a Security company in London and my guys are always telling me the same thing every week. Guys fighting over a " Bird".

Its sad whats happened to the young Ozzie but see this crap week in week out.

[shaggy851]

I believe his medical insurance expired 9 days before the attack. It is a well known and bizarre story that he was attacked by 2 graduating students from china and that they claimed he was molesting their friend. The injuries were horrific and nobody from the green mango or soi came to his aid, infact they were met by a Thai man brandishing a taser and in a separate occasion a British man with a broken bottle.

[Geordie59]

For the posters, this is a well known story, kid was dancing and two pumped-up expat kids from Shanghai didn't like who he was dancing with and beat him savagely. I know they were down celebrating graduation from high school, nice "present" for a couple of 18-19 year olds. He was down from Bangkok I think also celebrating graduation from High School. Wrong place wrong time for sure but expats in Samui are watching this just as Kho Tao.

At last someone who knows the correct story.

The amount of speculation that goes on here at TV amazes me.

If any of you has seen the arrogant attitude of the 2 people who did this I think you would want them put away for a long time. Typical spoilt brats from wealthy backgrounds.

[sandhurstmolonski]

For the posters, this is a well known story, kid was dancing and two pumped-up expat kids from Shanghai didn't like who he was dancing with and beat him savagely. I know they were down celebrating graduation from high school, nice "present" for a couple of 18-19 year olds. He was down from Bangkok I think also celebrating graduation from High School. Wrong place wrong time for sure but expats in Samui are watching this just as Kho Tao.

So really its yet another " Schoolies " style situation ..which often end in a situation like this , youth dont worry about the nature of a

" Fair Fight " ..

So if he's 20 years ..He has basically been in Thai all his life ? therefore surely must have family .

[sandhurstmolonski]

For the posters, this is a well known story, kid was dancing and two pumped-up expat kids from Shanghai didn't like who he was dancing with and beat him savagely. I know they were down celebrating graduation from high school, nice "present" for a couple of 18-19 year olds. He was down from Bangkok I think also celebrating graduation from High School. Wrong place wrong time for sure but expats in Samui are watching this just as Kho Tao.

At last someone who knows the correct story.

The amount of speculation that goes on here at TV amazes me.

If any of you has seen the arrogant attitude of the 2 people who did this I think you would want them put away for a long time. Typical spoilt brats from wealthy backgrounds.

Haven't seen them , but have no doubt you are correct . They certainly dont appear concerned about damage done .

[Friendly Stranger]

Seriously, the world needs to get a close up of the poor guy!

What's with these islands.

Get well Jack.

[Regyai]

. Something is missing here.

Indeed

Cogent facts

and plainly a damned dictionary

[starky]

The accused were Chinese-Americans.... Aren't the able to chase them in USA.. And what about travel insurance, has that not covered much..

pretty hard to get travel insurance when you have lived here for the past 15 years.....