Thai Court Sentences Australian For 34 Years For Murdering Wife

[Jai Dee]

Australian gets 34 years for murdering wife

The Thai court has sentenced an Australian man to 34 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his Canadian wife a year ago.

Steward Keith McLeod, 45, was convicted of beating his wife to death with a hammer and dumping her body in roadside bushes in Bangkok last December, court official said.

McLeod had been quarreling with the wife, Barbara Lynn, 61, who demanded that her husband return to live with her in Canada. The angry husband refused and beat her to death, disposed of her body and then reported to the police that his wife had disappeared, police said.

Source: The Nation -28 December 2006

Background: see this thread.

[skippybangkok]

Australian gets 34 years for murdering wife

...who demanded that her husband return to live with her in Canada.

Source: The Nation -28 December 2006

Background: see this thread.

First thought he was nuts. Not sure which of the 2 evils were worse ? ( Maybe he is happier in Jail than in Canada ? )

[TAWP]

Guess he forgot to just say 'No'.

[britmaveric]

Nutter, plain and simple!

[SiriusBlack1]

Just say no, and call the police to have her removed from his premises. What could be simpler?

Obviously this guy had other "issues" ...

[Vespa]

Obviously this guy had other "issues" ...

Yeah , a 61 year old wife.

Edited December 28, 2006 by Vespa

[OzMan_Bkk]

Fancy trying to force an Aussie to go and live in Canada.

Talk about cruel and unusual punishment....

[Riverside]

Fancy trying to force an Aussie to go and live in Canada.

Talk about cruel and unusual punishment....

Oh dear another one hits the dust. Someone once said to me that they had defended me. Oh I said, How? That bloke over there said that your were not fit to live with pigs. I told him you were.

Thanks I said.

[Ulysses]

Why did his step-daughter remain in Bangkok (during the year) to help with his defense?

His wife looked pretty good for being much older.

[Jai Dee]

Aussie gets 34 years for killing Canadian wife

An Australian man who pleaded guilty to the murder of his Canadian wife in Bangkok has been sentenced to 34 years in jail.

Stewart Keith McLeod was given a commuted life term by the South Bangkok Criminal Court yesterday for beating his wife Barbara to death with a hammer in December 2005.

McLeod, 45, had pleaded guilty late last month to three charges relating to his wife's death.

The Australian, dressed in plain brown prison attire and with heavy chains around his ankles, received a life term - 50 years - plus additional years for attempting to conceal his wife's body and denying the offence when first questioned by the police.

But his subsequent confession and cooperation with prosecutors, by accepting the charges, saw his sentence halved - to 34 years and one month.

McLeod is from the New South Wales mid-north coast but lived in Hong Kong then Bangkok for nearly a decade. He has at least a month to appeal. His lawyer said yesterday no decision had been made yet on whether to contest the severity of the term.

McLeod was arrested on December 23 last year after the body of his 61-year-old wife was discovered in a lane near their apartment in Thong Lo.

The McLeods had known each other for 13 years and had been married for the last nine. Both worked in Asia's booming information technology (IT) industry. They had met in Hong Kong before shifting to Thailand about five years ago.

McLeod initially lodged a missing persons report with the police at Thong Lo. But they were suspicious of his story - a search of the couple's home shortly after found bloodstains on the bedroom floor and stairs.

After hours of interrogation, the Australian confessed to having argued with his wife in the early hours of the morning and bludgeoned her to death with a hammer.

The couple had been due to depart for Canada later that day for the Christmas holidays but had had a huge argument over several domestic matters.

McLeod's 32-year-old stepdaughter, Tasha Singleton, reportedly told the court through a translator she had been with the couple two days before the murder, when she flew to Canada.

Her mother and stepfather Stewart had been expected to follow her to Toronto for a Christmas break. But she had to fly back to Thailand in early January after being told of the tragedy.

Singleton told the court she confronted McLeod over the incident at Bangkok's remand prison. "He said they were having an argument and that she wasn't understanding and he snapped and he pushed her and he hit her," she reportedly said.

McLeod had taken good care of her mother and been generous, but she felt he should do a period in jail for his crime, she told the court.

In interviews with the press, McLeod expressed remorse but said his actions were not pre-meditated. He had simply panicked after killing his wife and initially tried to cover it up.

Thong Lo police said McLeod had recounted a heated argument in detail and admitted to killing his wife in a 10-minute attack.

"If I could only take it back. But I can't. I'll be doing time, whatever it is, and I'll just have to live with it afterwards. In one night I managed to lose the lady ... the light of my life. My life is over. I've hurt everybody I know," he reportedly said.

Source: The Nation - 29 December 2006

[johnnyk]

Pretty nasty killing, I doubt he'll do 34 years.

And if he does his anus will be the size of a basketball hoop.

Just another drunk Ozzie tosser.

Canada is way too good for him and his ilk.

[taxexile]

The Australian, dressed in plain brown prison attire and with heavy chains around his ankles, received a life term - 50 years -

a couple of days ago , i read on thai visa a post from the mother of a british man who had been murdered by his thai wife , stabbed i think , because the wife was upset that the husband had been talking to another woman.

she received a sentence of 12 years .

why the huge discrepancy in sentencing between the aussie man and the thai woman , (even before his added years for initially denying the sentence)

[Jai Dee]

Australian jailed in Thailand for murdering wife

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that an Australian man has been sentenced to 34 years in jail in Thailand for murdering his Canadian wife.

Forty-five-year-old Stewart Keith McLeod was arrested by Thai police in Bangkok in December last year.

Yesterday he was found guilty of murder, disposing of his wife's body and providing false information to police.

The Department says the Australian Embassy in Bangkok is providing consular assistance to McLeod, and officials in Canberra have been in contact with his family.

Source: The Australian - 29 December 2006

[In the Rai!]

The Australian, dressed in plain brown prison attire and with heavy chains around his ankles, received a life term - 50 years -

a couple of days ago , i read on thai visa a post from the mother of a british man who had been murdered by his thai wife , stabbed i think , because the wife was upset that the husband had been talking to another woman.

she received a sentence of 12 years .

why the huge discrepancy in sentencing between the aussie man and the thai woman , (even before his added years for initially denying the sentence)

That is a very valid point. Does anyone have any more info on this story, that can maybe shed some light as to why the Australian received such a heavier sentence compared to the Thai wife?

[aaaaaa]

she must have been quite strong at her age of 61 years - wouldn't die so easily ! otherwise why would he use hammer? and then, almost 20 years difference in their age - a bit strange. he, being in Thailand, place with hordes of Thai girls, being married to western women 20 years older than him... whatever other speculations might be - I can bet there was hardly love in their marriage involved. then what - some gain?

[King Dong]

Bumped into the guys daughter one night.. The conversation went as follows..

Hi, where are you from..

My name is

Oh, my Dad axe murdered my mum..

I made a sharp exit

[Hugh Jarse]

Pretty nasty killing, I doubt he'll do 34 years.

And if he does his anus will be the size of a basketball hoop.

Just another drunk Ozzie tosser.

Canada is way too good for him and his ilk.

What a pathetic response. Why doubt the 34 year sentence ; a Royal pardon perhaps or are you an expert in comparitive jurisprudence?

Understand the facts first before making such silly coments. You mention 'tosser' I guess it takes one to recognise one.

Hugh (an Irishman)

[Hugh Jarse]

Bumped into the guys daughter one night.. The conversation went as follows..

Hi, where are you from..

My name is

Oh, my Dad axe murdered my mum..

I made a sharp exit

[Hugh Jarse]

Bumped into the guys daughter one night.. The conversation went as follows..

Hi, where are you from..

My name is

Oh, my Dad axe murdered my mum..

I made a sharp exit

[Krungthepian]

In regard to why the huge discrepancy - between those two cases: I heard that the judge who dealt with Stewart McLeod's case was a very senior judge and perhaps not afraid to 'throw the book' at him.

He would also have known that the Aussie has a chance to appeal - within the next 30 days (and that is extendable).

They allegedly won't get a copy of the court verdict for 2-3 weeks but one would imagine he would appeal, given his confession and apparent expressions of remorse. He's almost got nothing to lose, given that he looks to have got the maximum sentence.

And Thai courts can reportedly be lenient in regard to 'crimes of passion'.

The question is whether the judge figured this crime was pre-meditated. McLeod admits he lost it, but it would seem the judge didn't rate his attack in an alleged fit of rage as a spur of the moment thing.

One interesting thing to bear in mind might be how courts or judges respond when the accused can talk to them directly. In some other cases farang have been treated very leniently when they have pleaded their claims directly to the bench. There was a young Brisbane man, Marc Beatton, who was convicted of throwing his a friend of his girlfriend off a fifth or sixth storey flat window (or glass door), while very drunk and involved in a domestic argument. One claim was that the girls were having a lesbian affair but it's unknown whether that is true. The girl died, but the Beatton ended up out after just five or six years, courtesy partly of the large amnesty this year linked to the King. Beatton originally got 16 years then that was halved at appeal. In a way, he largely talked his way out of it, thru his gift with languages. There may have been other factors, including his young age, and heaven knows what else.

But, the discrepancy between Beatton's case and some of the huge terms that Westerners get for drugs - anyone dealing with drugs - seems massive.

A notorious pedophile called Bradley Pendragon got out around the same time as Beatton - middle of 2006 - after serving about a decade. He is yet another example of the big judicial discrepancies you get here. Pendragon was convicted of violent sex with/rapes of underage girls, who were well underage; ugly stuff if you look at the details. Yet he too was freed while people who tried to smuggle hard drugs, sometimes not in very large quantities, are still inside. A comment was made at the time - "it's as though they're releasing the killers and pedophiles first".

Sadly, the media here don't do a very job of reporting these cases; more details are desperately needed to know why McLeod got so many years. He reportedly had one of the top lawyers in Bangkok but that didn't help. It's been said that he attacked his wife after she'd gone to bed - not during a fight - I don't know whether that's true, but if it is it suggests scheming to kill rather than an explosion of rage while arguing.. another rumour was that he was having an affair and his wife confronted him over that, then said she's heading back to Toronto.

At the end of the day, it doesn't make a lot of sense. He lost it big time, and he knows it now more than ever.

On another note, the Thai judiciary has felt empowered - it seems - since the coup. It's almost as though the chains have been released and judges are now launching into verdicts long pondered and stifled in some way by the Thaksin administration, which is suspected of having interfered with many matters.

Next big decision, will be Jan 5 - whether they give US businessman William Monson a chance against Thaksin. Many believe it would be very fitting if they did.. given the claims that the former PM was partly to an illegal takeover of a highly profitable business.

An early story on the Beatton case:

19 year old Aussie held on murder charge in Thailand

AFP 26-2-01

BANGKOK - A 19-year-old Australian man has been charged with murder after a Thai woman fell to her death from the sixth-floor window of an apartment building in Bangkok, police said Monday.

Police said Marc Beatton, who was working as an English teacher here, was drunk when he allegedly pushed Saipin Sopamas through a plate-glass window.

"Saipin Sopamas, 23, was found dead on the ground below the sixth floor window, and Marc Beatton, 19, was found in the room with cuts from broken glass from the window," a police report said.

"Another 25-year-old Thai woman, Rungsri Nongkran, told police Marc was her boyfriend and he got drunk because of the death of his father, and his mother was not supporting him financially. He had a fight with her and she ran out of the room, then she heard glass breaking," the report said.

Australian embassy deputy head John Griffin confirmed an Australian citizen has been arrested in connection with the death of a local woman, but declined to give a name.

"An Australian is in hospital under police guard in connection with the death of a Thai woman. We've been in touch with him," he said.

tp-de/agr/cl AFP 260924 GMT FEB 01

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