Thai Lady Murdered In Jomtien

[kurgen]

john b good, stop reading the Manchester Guardian, wearing a woolly 'bennie' hat, supping on mueseli and knitting organic yoghurt and be a realist.

Rock on Tommy

[dvk1951]

Crap reporting.

His nationality has gone from Finnish to Icelandic to Irish.

His name from Anthony to Leahy.

His age from 38 to 40.

From the time my G/F came running in to tell me the lady was being murdered to the time I reached the crime scene (3 Minutes) it changed from, British, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, German, Norway and Irish.

There were many mistakes in the news reports like the time I know the exact time because I was on my cell phone to Australia when I heard the screams and I thought someone had their T.V. turned up. Yes the security guards did run but in the oposite direction when they saw he had a knife. There is also a lot of other information which I won't put on a public forum because I didnt want to defame the murdered lady her family or the accused wife. So please let the law take the action and let the poor girl R.I.P.

Managment are now looking for a mew security company?????

Tony, you are one of the few on this thread that realizes that other than the fact that an INNOCENT girl was brutally murdered, the entire report is a pack of lies. The papers in question are being sued for slander by her family (unless there has been a agreement reached) for completely smearing the reputation of the girl. This was rape and murder, plain and simple.

Bupha, we will miss you and hope to see justice served.

[libya 115]

Crap reporting.

His nationality has gone from Finnish to Icelandic to Irish.

His name from Anthony to Leahy.

His age from 38 to 40.

From the time my G/F came running in to tell me the lady was being murdered to the time I reached the crime scene (3 Minutes) it changed from, British, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, German, Norway and Irish.

There were many mistakes in the news reports like the time I know the exact time because I was on my cell phone to Australia when I heard the screams and I thought someone had their T.V. turned up. Yes the security guards did run but in the oposite direction when they saw he had a knife. There is also a lot of other information which I won't put on a public forum because I didnt want to defame the murdered lady her family or the accused wife. So please let the law take the action and let the poor girl R.I.P.

Managment are now looking for a mew security company?????

Tony, you are one of the few on this thread that realizes that other than the fact that an INNOCENT girl was brutally murdered, the entire report is a pack of lies. The papers in question are being sued for slander by her family (unless there has been a agreement reached) for completely smearing the reputation of the girl. This was rape and murder, plain and simple.

Bupha, we will miss you and hope to see justice served.

I don't think that anyone doubts that this is a case of possible rape and certain murder.

I am sorry to hear that the newspapers have printed false information with respect to Miss Bupha.

Sadly mis-reporting and misinformation in newspaper accounts, is standard practice here in Pattaya.

I certainly hope that justice is achieved after the trial.

This is one of the worst cases I can remember.

[JacknDanny]

I don't see where this guy has been convicted yet (or have I missed a post?)

Personally I don't much like the look of him, but until he has been found guilty I would suggest that everyone is jumping to conclusions (and giving the guy labels that at present are not justified or warranted) TIT (or should it be 'FIT' "farangs in Thailand)

I agree, innocent until convicted; BUT

john b good, stop reading the Manchester Guardian, wearing a woolly 'bennie' hat, supping on mueseli and knitting organic yoghurt and be a realist.

Sorry to be so pedantic, but the Manchester Guardian ceased to be in 1959!!!

[libya 115]

SOURCE: IRISH INDEPENDENT 27-11-06

Irishman confesses to brutal killing of Thai girl

THE Irish taxi driver accused of murdering a Thai prostitute has confessed to the brutal killing.

Denis Leahy (40) stabbed the young woman to death last Sunday night in a frenzied sex attack.

He is now behind bars in Thailand and is likely to receive a life sentence.

Speaking from a crowded cell in Pattaya, which he is sharing with 13 other prisoners, the former soldier admitted: "I killed her. I don't know what came over me - but I know what's coming. They are going to screw me to a wall."

He claimed to have sought out the prostitute after having a row with his girlfriend.

"I had a fight with my girlfriend that morning and I wanted to make her jealous." After having sex with 24-year-old Bupha Tanchiangpin, he asked her if she would be interested in bondage. But he claims that after tying one of her hands, she "freaked out" and tried to leave the apartment, which he shared with Khun Janyar, a local woman.

"I ran after her and caught her in the stairwell. She was freaking out and I dragged her back. She struggled, screaming and kicking."

He said he tried to gag her with a towel to keep her quiet when a security guard came knocking on the door.

"I do not know why I did not let them in to undo her. I just panicked. She was still panicking. Then I had a knife that was sitting on the table. I went to get it to cut her free but when she saw the knife she went even more insane.

"I panicked. I don't know what happened but I stabbed her in the neck."

He is now facing life imprisonment in the infamous Banhwang Prison - known as the 'Bangkok Hilton' because of its brutal regime. However, he could also face the death penalty.

He says he is going to plead guilty to manslaughter but is fearful of what will happen him in prison. He was arrested last Monday as he tried to flee for the Cambodian border. His taxi driver, suspicious of his wounds, accepted a €75 fare, but called the local police on his mobile phone. They were waiting when he pulled into a petrol station.

One of a family of eight children from inner city Dublin, Leahy served with the Irish Army for three years, from 1985. He was unemployed and lived on the dole for a lengthy period during the 1990s.

He left Ireland and moved to Thailand in 2004 but returned to Ireland occasionally to work as a taxi driver.

[taxexile]

he asked her if she would be interested in bondage. But he claims that after tying one of her hands, she "freaked out"

did he ask her in thai ?

i doubt it.

did she understand the question in english ?

i doubt it.

a simple misunderstanding leading to him grabbing her by the arms and tying them up.

not surprised she freaked out , he got the red mist and the rest is known.

if it wasnt her he would have done someone else sooner or later. he sounds seriously unhinged , and as he so rightly put it , he will be screwed to the wall for the next 30 years.

[sriracha john]

From the source that has been providing so much information on this case, the Irish Independent, comes their latest report:

SEIZED: Weapons Thai police believe to be related to the gruesome murder

PARADISE LOST: Dubliner Denis Leahy is arrested for the murder of prostitute Bupha Thanyachiangphin

Seedy sex resort home to hundreds of Irish

Upon first hearing that a middle-aged Irish taxi driver had been arrested in Thailand for the brutal murder of a young prostitute, I guessed it had probably happened in Pattaya - or possibly Phuket.

Sure, there's an abundance of both prostitutes and middle-aged Irishmen scattered throughout the Land of Smiles, but they're especially concentrated in those two locations. It turned out to be Pattaya.

Last Sunday night, 40-year-old Denis Leahy - a former Irish Army soldier and occasional Dublin cabby - viciously killed 24-year-old prostitute Bupha Thanyachiangphin at the apartment he shared with his Thai girlfriend. Initial reports stated that he'd tied her up and then stabbed her 20 times in the back.

Leahy immediately fled, but was arrested the following day en route to the Cambodian border after his taxi driver recognised him from the news bulletins and sneakily arranged to meet the police at a petrol station (there's obviously less honour among cabbies than among thieves).

Reportedly, he's already confessed his guilt. Speaking to journalists from a crowded Pattaya cell on Wednesday, Leahy explained that earlier that fateful morning he'd had a row with his Thai girlfriend, Khun Janyar - who worked at a local fish market - and had brought Bupha home to make her jealous. He said the plastic ties on Bupha's wrists were a bondage experiment gone wrong, and he claimed he hadn't stabbed her 20 times - only five. However many times it was, it was enough. Bupha's dead and, as realisation sinks in, Leahy probably wishes he were too. Yet another paradise lost.

Situated 150km southeast of Bangkok, Pattaya is Thailand's busiest beach resort, attracting well upwards of a million visitors each year. Most of these are package tourists from Europe, Japan, Russia and the Middle East.

The one-time fishing village first became a resort when US GIs from a base in nearby Nakhon Ratchasima began visiting in 1959, seeking R and R. Pattaya has since grown into a large coastal city. Its three biggest tourist attractions are watersports, golf and, inevitably, sex.

It's a full-on place, a sensory overload. I spent 10 days in Pattaya last December and was routinely amazed at the scale of the decadence. Truly the place was a Disneyland for adults.

It's extremely difficult not to pick up a woman in Pattaya. The whores actually heckle you as you walk past. Regardless of race, face or age, the girls throw themselves at farangs (foreigners). Many stick. Walking along the lengthy promenade, it's not uncommon to see elderly men walking arm-in-arm with beautiful teenage girls.

With everyone swimming in such shallow romantic waters, jealousy is extremely common. One night I almost got a Zimmer frame in the head for giving a light to some enraged German pensioner's girlfriend.

Usually, though, the jealousy is all the Thai women's. Midway through my stay there, I needed to travel to the Cambodian border to renew my visa. A bus picked me up at my hotel at 6am and then proceeded to pick up another seven passengers.

All of my fellow farang travellers were permanent residents, aged between mid-40s and mid-70s. They all had beautiful young Thai girlfriends waving them off. Throughout the journey their mobiles rang incessantly as their women checked up on them. The girls were obviously all terrified that their meal ticket had just left town (in fact, it became the running misogynist joke of that trip). When we returned, they were all there waiting, sulky and needy.

Most foreign residents are converted holidaymakers. With clear skies, budget accommodation and cheap booze, food and sex available at every street corner, it's no surprise that many westerners do the maths and decide to relocate. There's a large farang population - a significant proportion of whom are middle-aged or retired European divorcees, widowers and criminals.

Official figures aren't available but, from my own time there, I would estimate that there are certainly several hundred permanent Irish residents. Some of these are legitimate businessmen and entrepreneurs. Others are on the run. Sometimes just from a drab life back home. But there are tens of thousands of Irish sex tourists, holidaymakers and golf enthusiasts visiting every year.

I met an ex-soldier who'd come there on holiday with his soon-to-be-ex-wife. They'd had a row and he'd gone off on his own one night. He eventually came back a month later, and then only to divorce her, sell the house and assets, and return to Thailand.

He spent the first six months in Pattaya enjoying nightly four-in-a-bed romps with bar girls and ladyboys. Eventually his liver almost packed it in, so he began taking it easy - three-in-the-bed romps. He was on an army pension that could support this lifestyle indefinitely.

When I politely put it to him that he appeared to have something of a death wish, he didn't disagree. "We're here for a good time - not for a long time," he laughed.

He wasn't alone in this attitude. Some people are just partying until the money's gone. The suicide rate among farangs is high. When their cash -flow dries up, many of these guys suddenly realise that their teenaged Thai partner was only after one thing. And it wasn't their Viagra.

When their "swee-har" promised that they were going to "love you long tam", they were just quoting a line from a movie.

Often these men have burnt all bridges with family and friends back home. Besides, the thought of returning to some grey existence in Europe after an extended period of life in a hedonistic paradise is too much. From king to serf in just one flight. Many opt for a far briefer flight from their high-rise balcony instead.

Of course, not all Pattaya stories end in tragedy; many expats love living there. But if you've an appetite for destruction, all the ingredients are readily available.

One of a family of eight children from Dublin's inner city, Denis Leahy had served with the Army from 1985 to 1988. Unemployed and on the dole throughout most of the Nineties, he emigrated to Thailand and had been living in Pattaya since 2004 (though he occasionally returned to Ireland to work as a cab driver).

He's apparently already confessed and will reportedly plead guilty to a manslaughter charge. Unfortunately for him, his case has attracted much international media attention so there's now zero prospect of a police pay-off. The September coup may complicate things, but, if he's very lucky, he'll escape the death penalty and get a life sentence. A life of no life.

Irishman Colin Martin's recent bestselling book about life in the notorious Bangkok Hilton (Bangkwang prison) was entitled Welcome to hel_l. But Martin had been sentenced for killing a man. Denis Leahy killed a young Thai girl. Even if he gets life, it's unlikely he'll ever get a chance to write a book about it.

"I don't know what came over me - but I know what's coming," he told reporters last week. "They are going to screw me to a wall."

Olaf Tyaransen

Irish Independent

[Briggsy]

Wow, go to it, Olaf. You don't see hard-hitting journalism like that in The Bangkok Post.

[libya 115]

Wow, go to it, Olaf. You don't see hard-hitting journalism like that in The Bangkok Post.

Olaf could have done better, but there were a few good sentences. I particularly liked;

"Walking along the lengthy promenade, it's not uncommon to see elderly men walking arm-in-arm with beautiful teenage girls."

and

"He spent the first six months in Pattaya enjoying nightly four-in-a-bed romps with bar girls and ladyboys."

That has got to be 'artistic licence'.

[Pattayatony]

From the source that has been providing so much information on this case, the Irish Independent, comes their latest report:

SEIZED: Weapons Thai police believe to be related to the gruesome murder

PARADISE LOST: Dubliner Denis Leahy is arrested for the murder of prostitute Bupha Thanyachiangphin

Seedy sex resort home to hundreds of Irish

Upon first hearing that a middle-aged Irish taxi driver had been arrested in Thailand for the brutal murder of a young prostitute, I guessed it had probably happened in Pattaya - or possibly Phuket.

Sure, there's an abundance of both prostitutes and middle-aged Irishmen scattered throughout the Land of Smiles, but they're especially concentrated in those two locations. It turned out to be Pattaya.

Last Sunday night, 40-year-old Denis Leahy - a former Irish Army soldier and occasional Dublin cabby - viciously killed 24-year-old prostitute Bupha Thanyachiangphin at the apartment he shared with his Thai girlfriend. Initial reports stated that he'd tied her up and then stabbed her 20 times in the back.

Leahy immediately fled, but was arrested the following day en route to the Cambodian border after his taxi driver recognised him from the news bulletins and sneakily arranged to meet the police at a petrol station (there's obviously less honour among cabbies than among thieves).

Reportedly, he's already confessed his guilt. Speaking to journalists from a crowded Pattaya cell on Wednesday, Leahy explained that earlier that fateful morning he'd had a row with his Thai girlfriend, Khun Janyar - who worked at a local fish market - and had brought Bupha home to make her jealous. He said the plastic ties on Bupha's wrists were a bondage experiment gone wrong, and he claimed he hadn't stabbed her 20 times - only five. However many times it was, it was enough. Bupha's dead and, as realisation sinks in, Leahy probably wishes he were too. Yet another paradise lost.

Situated 150km southeast of Bangkok, Pattaya is Thailand's busiest beach resort, attracting well upwards of a million visitors each year. Most of these are package tourists from Europe, Japan, Russia and the Middle East.

The one-time fishing village first became a resort when US GIs from a base in nearby Nakhon Ratchasima began visiting in 1959, seeking R and R. Pattaya has since grown into a large coastal city. Its three biggest tourist attractions are watersports, golf and, inevitably, sex.

It's a full-on place, a sensory overload. I spent 10 days in Pattaya last December and was routinely amazed at the scale of the decadence. Truly the place was a Disneyland for adults.

It's extremely difficult not to pick up a woman in Pattaya. The whores actually heckle you as you walk past. Regardless of race, face or age, the girls throw themselves at farangs (foreigners). Many stick. Walking along the lengthy promenade, it's not uncommon to see elderly men walking arm-in-arm with beautiful teenage girls.

With everyone swimming in such shallow romantic waters, jealousy is extremely common. One night I almost got a Zimmer frame in the head for giving a light to some enraged German pensioner's girlfriend.

Usually, though, the jealousy is all the Thai women's. Midway through my stay there, I needed to travel to the Cambodian border to renew my visa. A bus picked me up at my hotel at 6am and then proceeded to pick up another seven passengers.

All of my fellow farang travellers were permanent residents, aged between mid-40s and mid-70s. They all had beautiful young Thai girlfriends waving them off. Throughout the journey their mobiles rang incessantly as their women checked up on them. The girls were obviously all terrified that their meal ticket had just left town (in fact, it became the running misogynist joke of that trip). When we returned, they were all there waiting, sulky and needy.

Most foreign residents are converted holidaymakers. With clear skies, budget accommodation and cheap booze, food and sex available at every street corner, it's no surprise that many westerners do the maths and decide to relocate. There's a large farang population - a significant proportion of whom are middle-aged or retired European divorcees, widowers and criminals.

Official figures aren't available but, from my own time there, I would estimate that there are certainly several hundred permanent Irish residents. Some of these are legitimate businessmen and entrepreneurs. Others are on the run. Sometimes just from a drab life back home. But there are tens of thousands of Irish sex tourists, holidaymakers and golf enthusiasts visiting every year.

I met an ex-soldier who'd come there on holiday with his soon-to-be-ex-wife. They'd had a row and he'd gone off on his own one night. He eventually came back a month later, and then only to divorce her, sell the house and assets, and return to Thailand.

He spent the first six months in Pattaya enjoying nightly four-in-a-bed romps with bar girls and ladyboys. Eventually his liver almost packed it in, so he began taking it easy - three-in-the-bed romps. He was on an army pension that could support this lifestyle indefinitely.

When I politely put it to him that he appeared to have something of a death wish, he didn't disagree. "We're here for a good time - not for a long time," he laughed.

He wasn't alone in this attitude. Some people are just partying until the money's gone. The suicide rate among farangs is high. When their cash -flow dries up, many of these guys suddenly realise that their teenaged Thai partner was only after one thing. And it wasn't their Viagra.

When their "swee-har" promised that they were going to "love you long tam", they were just quoting a line from a movie.

Often these men have burnt all bridges with family and friends back home. Besides, the thought of returning to some grey existence in Europe after an extended period of life in a hedonistic paradise is too much. From king to serf in just one flight. Many opt for a far briefer flight from their high-rise balcony instead.

Of course, not all Pattaya stories end in tragedy; many expats love living there. But if you've an appetite for destruction, all the ingredients are readily available.

One of a family of eight children from Dublin's inner city, Denis Leahy had served with the Army from 1985 to 1988. Unemployed and on the dole throughout most of the Nineties, he emigrated to Thailand and had been living in Pattaya since 2004 (though he occasionally returned to Ireland to work as a cab driver).

He's apparently already confessed and will reportedly plead guilty to a manslaughter charge. Unfortunately for him, his case has attracted much international media attention so there's now zero prospect of a police pay-off. The September coup may complicate things, but, if he's very lucky, he'll escape the death penalty and get a life sentence. A life of no life.

Irishman Colin Martin's recent bestselling book about life in the notorious Bangkok Hilton (Bangkwang prison) was entitled Welcome to hel_l. But Martin had been sentenced for killing a man. Denis Leahy killed a young Thai girl. Even if he gets life, it's unlikely he'll ever get a chance to write a book about it.

"I don't know what came over me - but I know what's coming," he told reporters last week. "They are going to screw me to a wall."

Olaf Tyaransen

Irish Independent

Here is the up-date on this piece of garbage!

My informents tell me he was released from prison several months ago and continued to live in Pattaya but the latest is that he has now moved to Cambodia.

Yes this is called justice if you have money to buy your way out ?????

Justice Thai Style.

[libya 115]

I would have thought that his safety would be in danger if he stayed in Pattaya. The lynch mob that gathered outside the police station after his arrest was the largest ever seen in Pattaya.

Seems he 'Got away with murder'.

Pathetic.

[sriracha john]

"I don't know what came over me - but I know what's coming," he told reporters last week. "They are going to screw me to a wall."

Here is the up-date on this piece of garbage!

My informents tell me he was released from prison several months ago and continued to live in Pattaya but the latest is that he has now moved to Cambodia.

Yes this is called justice if you have money to buy your way out ?????

Justice Thai Style.

Thank you for the update, Tony.... although it seems rather than "screwing him to a wall".... it seems they allowed him to climb over the wall and go off to Cambodia....

[britmaveric]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

[Pattayatony]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

I have been told he bought his way out.

[britmaveric]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

I have been told he bought his way out.

:D

[Prakanong]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

Exactly - and if bought out where did he get the money.

Nothing amazes me about Pattaya anymore - remember the Thai girl last year arrested and then confessed for having her NZ bidybuilder boyfriend killed - she walked for 700K THB did she not?

[JimmyCA]

One newspaper summed up Pattaya's attraction to British criminals, saying: "In the 1980s, Spain's Costa del Sol was the destination of choice for many British criminals. Today, they head to Thailand, where the beaches are stunning, the women cheap and the police are bribable."

Stunning beaches?

Cheap women and bribable cops 2 out of 3

[Humphrey Bear]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

I have been told he bought his way out.

An unemployed Irish ex-soldier? Where did he find the money?

This really stinks.

[TheWalkingMan]

Unfortunately this seems somewhat par for the course.

Think about it... If you had gone berserk and killed someone what are your options? To go willingly to a life or death sentence in a Thai prison, or payoff some people and skip town. Honestly, if it were me, I would do my best to get out of town. How about you? Would you relish the thought of paying your debt to Thai society via spending 40 years in the jug, execution or just pay a 'fine' and get out? Easy choice.

Personally, I think the guy should have been hung, but I feel that way about all senseless murders.

Wasn't there another case of a farang guy killing a girl on Soi Honey Inn in Pattaya awhile back. Last I read he was back in the UK.

Mentioned earlier was the Thai girl who had her NZ boyfriend bumped off. She paid some money and skated.

I guess the underlying theme is to always have some cash ready to pay your way out of those 'incidentals' from not wearing a helmet while on a motorbike to murder when living/visiting Thailand.

TheWalkingMan

[Prakanong]

Unfortunately this seems somewhat par for the course.

Think about it... If you had gone berserk and killed someone what are your options? To go willingly to a life or death sentence in a Thai prison, or payoff some people and skip town. Honestly, if it were me, I would do my best to get out of town. How about you? Would you relish the thought of paying your debt to Thai society via spending 40 years in the jug, execution or just pay a 'fine' and get out? Easy choice.

Personally, I think the guy should have been hung, but I feel that way about all senseless murders.

Wasn't there another case of a farang guy killing a girl on Soi Honey Inn in Pattaya awhile back. Last I read he was back in the UK.

Mentioned earlier was the Thai girl who had her NZ boyfriend bumped off. She paid some money and skated.

I guess the underlying theme is to always have some cash ready to pay your way out of those 'incidentals' from not wearing a helmet while on a motorbike to murder when living/visiting Thailand.

TheWalkingMan

The Soi Honey Inn one - is that the one where the guy frm London stabbed his GF because she as talking to customers at the bar he bought her?

If he is out and back in the UK then the Thai justice system is an even bigger joke than we all thought.

Murder is OK if you can pay but its not much they are paying for a life if the NZ one is much to go off???

[Tony Clifton]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

I have been told he bought his way out.

Which would make those wearing brown even scummier than this piece of garbage.

[Pattayatony]

Amazing - how the fk did he get out???

I have been told he bought his way out.

An unemployed Irish ex-soldier? Where did he find the money?

This really stinks.

Im told the money was sent over by his family?

[Pattayatony]

Unfortunately this seems somewhat par for the course.

Think about it... If you had gone berserk and killed someone what are your options? To go willingly to a life or death sentence in a Thai prison, or payoff some people and skip town. Honestly, if it were me, I would do my best to get out of town. How about you? Would you relish the thought of paying your debt to Thai society via spending 40 years in the jug, execution or just pay a 'fine' and get out? Easy choice.

Personally, I think the guy should have been hung, but I feel that way about all senseless murders.

Wasn't there another case of a farang guy killing a girl on Soi Honey Inn in Pattaya awhile back. Last I read he was back in the UK.

Mentioned earlier was the Thai girl who had her NZ boyfriend bumped off. She paid some money and skated.

I guess the underlying theme is to always have some cash ready to pay your way out of those 'incidentals' from not wearing a helmet while on a motorbike to murder when living/visiting Thailand.

TheWalkingMan

The Soi Honey Inn one - is that the one where the guy frm London stabbed his GF because she as talking to customers at the bar he bought her?

If he is out and back in the UK then the Thai justice system is an even bigger joke than we all thought.

Murder is OK if you can pay but its not much they are paying for a life if the NZ one is much to go off???

The Soi Honey case >>>>He was let go because he pleaded a Crime of Passion. And also paid money.

[britmaveric]

Just shows you how much thai lives are worth, not much.

[deon]

I just hope he has done to him what he did to that poor girl, the thais who let that scum out are not much better .only words for it all sad very sad indeed.

I really just cant belive it really i cant .How on earth can anyone justpay there way out after killing somone ?.

Its just mad I thought i had heard or seen most things about this place , but it never Ceases To Amaze Me.

Where is the justice for that poor Thai girl.Some folks should not be walking on this earth he is one of them.

Edited September 6, 2007 by deon

[mark100]

Police hunt for Irishman after Thai girl's murder

POLICE in Thailand investigating the gruesome murder of a bar girl were last night seeking to question a 40-year-old Irishman.

Denis Leahy, from Dublin, was being sought after the brutal stabbing to death of the 24-year-old Thai woman.

The incident happened yesterday between 5pm and 5.30pm, local time, in the sex tourist city of Pattaya, 160km south of the capital Bangkok.

The woman's naked body was found in an apartment beside the city's well-known Jomtien Beach.

Police say she had her hands tied behind her back before she was stabbed up to 20 times with a knife.

It is understood a hammer was also used in the attack. She was found lying face up in a pool of blood on the floor of the apartment by a security guard who had heard her screams. The security guard went to the apartment just as a man was trying to leave. The man then ran back into the house and jumped out of a window.

He escaped on a hired motorcycle, wearing only shorts. Police suspect she was killed in a quarrel over money.

The dead woman was from Udon Thani in the northeast of the country. She had travelled to Pattaya to work in a local bar.

It is understood Mr Leahy was staying in a rented apartment in Pattaya with another Thai woman.

Police were last night interviewing Mr Leahy's girlfriend of two years. She had not been in the apartment when the woman was killed.

Located in the province of Chon Buri, Pattaya is one of the largest centres for tourism in Thailand, with some five million visitors arriving annually. The city has about 100,000 registered inhabitants, though its actual population at any one time is thought to be closer to 500,000.

The official figure excludes the large number of Thais who work in Pattaya but remain registered in their hometowns and the many long-term expatriate visitors.

Despite its reputation as a destination for sex tourism, Pattaya has seen a large increase in family tourism in recent years, along with a more wholesome image.

The city suffers from a high murder rate, however, with many of the crimes involving expatriates, and has been dubbed Thailand's "Costa del Crime".

For several years, it has served as a hideaway for foreigners with connections to organised crime, and dozens of people have been murdered in gang-related disputes.

But the authorities are increasingly cracking down on paedophiles, and a number of high-profile arrests of wanted sexual predators have been made in recent years.

One newspaper summed up Pattaya's attraction to British criminals, saying: "In the 1980s, Spain's Costa del Sol was the destination of choice for many British criminals. Today, they head to Thailand, where the beaches are stunning, the women cheap and the police are bribable."

- Irish Independent (Ireland)

Pretty good description of Pattaya have to say

[Prakanong]

I just hope he has done to him what he did to that poor girl, the thais who let that scum out are not much better .only words for it all sad very sad indeed.

I really just cant belive it really i cant .How on earth can anyone justpay there way out after killing somone ?.

Its just mad I thought i had heard or seen most things about this place , but it never Ceases To Amaze Me.

Where is the justice for that poor Thai girl.Some folks should not be walking on this earth he is one of them.

It does amaze me too - I always knew rich and powerful Thai's could do anything, maybe even rich and powerful other nationalities as well if they were kept quiet and out of the limelight.

Then here we have piss pot poor buying their way out of murder charges for very little money - what a bloody society (and I acknowledge where these <deleted> come from as well and am ashamed at the Brits)

[Basil B]

An unemployed Irish ex-soldier? Where did he find the money?

This really stinks.

I suppose when the Irish Independent prints a statement like this: "Last Sunday night, 40-year-old Denis Leahy - a former Irish Army soldier and occasional Dublin cabby - viciously killed 24-year-old prostitute Bupha Thanyachiangphin" it would not be hard to to do a bit of fund raising (particularly if it was the "Republican" army he served in), as to the Irish the word "prostitute" would paint a picture of some not so nice looking, foul mouthed, slapper with personal hygiene problems hanging around a street corner.

BB

[kopite]

cant believe this fella has been let out...shocking

question?

who would he pay the bribe to? the family?

if so, how could money be more comfort than seeing a family members killer spend the rest of his life in prison

[Prakanong]

cant believe this fella has been let out...shocking

question?

who would he pay the bribe to? the family?

if so, how could money be more comfort than seeing a family members killer spend the rest of his life in prison

The Plod will have got the money in all probability - if the family got any the plod would have got their share too.

If the family did say they were OK with the charge not going ahead you can be sure the plod or the lawyer will have been persuading them along the lines of "You can never have her back - its better to get some money than nothing at all"

Cynical view - probably but TiT and life is not worth much to some there just as it is not in a few other countries when you have nothing.

Edited September 7, 2007 by Prakanong