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Hua Hin Property News - Briton, who fought back, beaten ‘close to death’

Published

Andrew Drummond

on March 10, 2010

in General News

. 42 Comments

FROM ANDREW DRUMMOND
BANGKOK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10 2010

Keith Burbage wanted his money back

This is the face of British retired executive Keith Burbage. The former director of ‘The Stationery Office’ was beaten after pulling out of a house purchase deal in Thailand.
Burbage, 56, now retired, had decided to fight back after losing a ₤40,000 deposit on a ₤200,000 new house in the ‘upmarket’ resort of Hua Hin, 100 miles south of Bangkok.
His beating comes after another retired house-buyer was paralysed for the rest of his life after being gunned down outside his ‘dream home’.
Today Burbage said’: “I am in hiding and in fear for my life. I am a victim of a property fraud, but here if you fight back you can die.”
Burbage, said he survived because passers-by came to his aid as he was being beaten with what appeared to be a baseball bat. He says he has little confidence in the police.
Witnesses say his attacker, who arrived in a black car, had been waiting for hours.
Burbage, former Managing Director (Services) for the TSO, quit his Fulham home three years ago taking early retirement.
In Hua Hin, where the King of Thailand has his summer palace here, ₤200,000 would have bought him a luxury house with pool, and, to Burbage it seemed paradise.
The resort boasts top quality spas, miles and miles of white sand beach fringed by coconut palms, some of the best golf courses in Thailand, and many trendy restaurants.
“I was captivated by it,” he said.
But what is not mentioned in the glossy brochures, is that the ‘ retirement’ property business has been invaded by down market ‘businessmen’ from Britain and Europe. The only thing they have in common is that none have been in the property business before and many have a colourful past.
“International mafia targets foreigner who was suing over land deal” was the headline on the Thai language Hua City News last week when Burbage was found in a pool of blood outside the white gates of the condominium he was renting.

Burbage attacked at the gates of this condo

This story never made the local English language press Hua Hin Today and the Hua Hin Observer, both are owned by foreign property developers.
Today (Wed) Burbage is suing for the return of his cash in the local provincial court: “I am trying to work out how to get to the court without being ambushed on the way. I am in fear for my life,” he said.
He had put down the deposit with a European developer, only to find out later he had been palmed off with a home on a different plot 500 square metres smaller. He asked for his money back. The company refused and said Burbage: “I was warned not to mess with people with connections.

“There is nobody protecting people from the foreign mafia here, least of all the police. The investigation is going nowhere,” he added.

Donald Whiting now paralysed

Donald Whiting, 65, an ex-US marine is also in hiding with his partner Dolly Samson.
First Whiting’s car was firebombed, then he was gunned down outside his home, after he publicly complained about his property developer, not the same as Burbage’s.
Napatsorn Oxley, known as Sarah, the Thai wife of British property developer Darren Oxley, has been charged with hiring assassins to kill him.
Police have also arrested the three would be assassins, who, police claimed, said she paid the equivalent of £600 pounds to fire-bomb Whiting’s car and £2,000 pounds to kill him. He was shot five times outside his home. In hiding Whiting is paralysed and needs 24 hour care.
Those who allegedly plotted to kill him have got bail and he has no witness protection.
“It’s a living nightmare,” he said. “Those with money can just walk free in Thailand.”

Darren Oxley

Darren Oxley is on the run from Sheffield Crown Court. He fled bail in 2001, on charges of conspiracy to supply drugs.
Another British property group ran by South Londoners promoted the Hua Hin Country Club, using the figure of England and Chelsea footballer Joe Cole, and took over ₤1 million in deposits off plan.
The Hua Hin Country Club is still being promoted on the internet….and still not one brick has been laid.
A British Embassy spokesman advised potentional property buyers in Thailand to heed the Foreign Office Travel Advisory.
“People have been sold properties which do not exist, have trouble getting ownership papers, and in once case we know the same property was sold to 12 different clients. Going through the courts can take years.”

Scot saved by the hand of a Thai angel

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 28, 2010

in General News

. 6 Comments

FROM ANDREW DRUMMOND, BANGKOK, FEBRUARY 27 2010

Link to Sunday Mail Scotland

A SCOTS engineer said to have weeks to live has stunned doctors by making a recovery - helped by his Thai partner.

Allan Hyne , 64, is to be discharged from a hospital in Thailand having got over a brain bug, which left him in a coma.

Last week his family, from Buckie, Banffshire, claimed they would have to leave him to die in Thailand because they could not afford to fly him home.

But the Thai woman who helped nurse him has now told of her love for “the funny Scottish man” who has been her companion for seven years - and how he got better.

Patchararawadee Oogrit pledged: “I’ll stick by him to the end, wherever that may be.”

Allan Hyne with Dtim at the first ICU

The engineer said Allan was suffering from Japanese encephalitis but the worst is now over. She added: “When he got sick, I cried every day but the doctor said maybe Allan will have good luck and recover.

“I look after him every day so I know he’s getting better. Sometimes he smiles and I know he understands.

“He always told me he wanted to retire and live in Thailand.”

Allan, who worked for Grampian Country Foods, was struck down with the mosquito borne disease just a month after taking retirement last year.

He was put into hospital in Ramkhamhaeng, Bangkok, but yesterday was getting final treatment at the Ake Pathum Hospital in Nakhon Nayok, 30 miles north of the capital.

Doctors say Allan will not be able to talk again and are not sure how much more of a recovery he will make. Dr Naratapong Sangtong said: “He has got better. Some patients continue improving, others level off.”

Part of his treatment has been paid for by the Thai government because he had local insurance. The rest, including a private nurse, is being financed by his partner.

Patchararawadee said she was distressed to hear of Scottish TV and press reports saying Allan was being left for dead and there was nobody taking care of him.

Allan’s daughter Dawn was quoted as saying he was in a pauper’s hospital. And his son Allan said he would need between £120,000 and £200,000 to fly his dad home.

Last night, his son added: “He is not married to this woman. He did live with her in Thailand but he is still married to my mother.

“The British Consulate told my sister in no uncertain terms on Friday he was not to be removed from hospital and I would certainly be concerned about it if that was the case.

“Why remove someone from a hospital where they are receiving free treatment? “He would be better offback in Britain and back with his family.”

Patchararawadee said: “I am paying for a respirator and full-time nurse but my money will run out soon. Allan is not able to sign over power of attorney so no funds can be released for his treatment.

“I am happy to bring their father home to Scotland. If the family can release his money, I’m sure a flight can be arranged.

“I would continue to take care of him anywhere, even though he said he would like to die here.

“I’m happy because he’s still with me. I don’t care how difficult it is to look after him, I’ll do it.”

Jet ski thugs ‘ a disgrace to Thailand’ says injured ex-Para

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 22, 2010

in General News

. 18 Comments

First the Royal Marines: - Now retired ‘Para’ is struck down in Thailand’s jet ski war

From ANDREW DRUMMOND , BANGKOK, February 20 2010

A 61-yr-old retired paratrooper from Walsall has become the latest victim in a ‘jet ski war’ which has claimed hundreds of tourist victims in Thailand.
Last night David Marshall, a former Sergeant in (2 Para) 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, told how he fought off five youths, after he refused to give in to an extortion attempt in the resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok.
He was attacked after Thai thugs tried to pull a well worn tourist scam that their jet ski had been damaged and demanded compensation.

Former Sergeant in '2 Para' David Marshall

“There were five of them on me. They got in a couple of punches in my eye and mouth, but it took them some time to get me to the ground before they kicked me and ran off. I think I acquitted myself alright” he said.
Added Mr. Marshall, who ran his own construction firm after leaving the Parachute Regiment: “These 20-30 year olds were a bunch of cowards and a disgrace to Thailand.”
The incident at the weekend follows widespread, threats, some at knifepoint, and extortion of tourists in Thailand’s other resort areas of Koh Samui and Phuket . Victims have had to pay up to 1,500 pounds each time.

Thai Jet ski man and Royal Marine Police Sergeant face off in Phuket

Last year, on the holiday island Phuket a Group of Royal Marines of 40 Commando from HMS Bulwark faced a gun as a Thai jet-ski hirer extorted over 600 pounds from them, claiming loss of earnings and repair work. The Thai ‘enforcer’ admitted he had to pay 20% to police.

Marine policeman Matt Turner

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright described the Thai jet ski boss as ’a two bit swindler’ and in the British TV series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ and Marine Policeman Mat Turner went on to describe how men on shore leave were being ‘ripped off everywhere, hiring jet-skis, taxis, tuk-tuks’. He said the rip-off were organised ‘as if by criminal gangs’.

After orders from the Minister of the Interior Phuket’s Governor stepped in and all jet ski businesses were ordered to insure their boats so they need not get the cash back from tourists. Tourists now claim they are being scammed for ‘loss of earnings’ while the boat is being repaired.

And in one three month period on the island of Koh Samui, consular officials recorded 150 such cases of extortion which included alleged damage to land buggies. The Foreign Office has already issued a Travel Advisory warning of the dangers of renting jet skis in Thailand and warnings are also running on the website TripAdvisor.

Fraudsters, usually working with the co-operation of local police, force high payments out of tourists for alleged damage – on pain of going to jail.
David Marshall was on holiday in Pattaya with his son, Darren, 37, and a friend . They hired three jet skis and they closely examined their jet skis before taking them.
“The day before we had seen a tourist getting scammed. So when we hired them we checked them out very carefully. As we looked at the bottom of Darren’s jet ski, the owner must have put his hand over some damage as he held it up.
“When we got back he pointed it out and we said it was definitely not from us and I told them I was having none of that nonsense,” he said.
The attack came as they walked away.
“My face looks like I’ve been in a car crash, but luckily there’s no serious long term damage – apart from a broken tooth”.

David Marshall said that, while he had been to the police once by pre-arrangement, the senior policeman involved had forgotten to turn up. He planned to go again (Monday). “Apart from this incident we have had a very good holiday.”

Birdman of Dagenham faces Himalayan grounding

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 18, 2010

in General News

. 0 Comments

NB: Parahawking continues in Nepal despite the threat. For up to date information contact Scott Mason through his website - www.parahawking.com

Link to Daily Mail

Link to Evening Standard

Pictures: Scott Mason

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, February 17 2010

Londoner Scott Mason, the ‘Birdman of Dagenham’, who runs a vulture rescue centre in the Himalayas, today faced being shut down by the Nepalese government after a press campaign in the capital Katmandu.
Mason, 38, speaking from Pokhara, Nepal: “It’s very depressing news. They say I am operating illegally. It’s seems there is resentment and the government has said they are closing me down. If that happens all my birds will die, and very slowly.”
scott-mason-birdman01 The East London former graphics designer and falconer has achieved world-wide fame over the last nine years first for his work with his ‘Himalayan Raptor Rescue’ – and Para-hawking.
In his Para-hawking venture tourists can para-glide through the Himalayas with kites and Egyptian vultures, which he has trained to fly with them, swooping, taking tidbits, and even sitting on the crossbars.
The experience has been the subject of many films and television documentaries and featured as one of FHM magazines ‘Things to do before you die’

Scott Mason with Egyptian vultures

But now Nepal’s Minister for Forest & Soil Conservation Deepak Bokhara has announced that Mason’s operation will be banned. “We will stop Mason,” he said.
The Ministerial announcement came after a month long ‘Mason Must Go!’ campaign by the Republica newspaper in Katmandu.
The newspaper claimed that Mason was illegally holding endangered species and was outraged that he charged 120 Euros for para-hawking with the birds.
scott-mason-birdman02 “This is animal abuse and is forbidden by the country’s law in every sense of the term.” The newspaper asked “Who has let this foreigner indulge in such activities?”
Scott’s Himalayan Raptor Rescue is a partner of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Vulture Rescue, and Bird Conservation Nepal. It runs the only bird rescue centre in Nepal.
Hum Guring, Chief Executive Officer of Bird Conservation Nepal has meanwhile called for the setting up of an official Bird Rescue Centre which Nepal does not yet have.
“We understand the Himalayan Raptor Centre has been concerned with the saving of Raptors and we join hands (with it) to save our birds. The work of the Himalayan Raptor Centre is much appreciated and is also an important source of income for sustaining the rescue works and to support vulture conservation in Nepal.”
Said Scott: “We have black kites and Egyptian vultures which we use in Para-hawking. They have not been captured. They have been raised as chicks after being abandoned.
“The others we rescue we treat and release into the wild. But if we release trained birds, which have been working with humans they will die. We work closely and help fund the BCN and also work with the RSPB. This will be a very sad day”. Flights he said would continue until he was notified officially by the Nepalese authorities.
Dr. Juliet Vickery, Head of International Research for the RSPB said she was concerned at the news but would withhold comment until she could contact Richard Cuthbert, Senior Conservationist Scientist and head of Vulture Rescue, who had worked with Mason, but who was currently in New Zealand.
“Scott Mason is probably right if he says the birds will die if released into the wild.”
Nepal toppled its monarchy in 2008 and after initially being ruled by a Maoist government is now ruled by a coalition led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Marxist Party of Nepal.

British ‘diplomatic note’ over possible abduction of Bangkok international school pupil

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 16, 2010

in General News

. 10 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,

Monday February 15 2010

The British Foreign Office has issued a diplomatic note to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs covering a letter expressing fears that an attempt made be made to abduct an 11-yr-old pupil at an international school in Bangkok.

The move followed a complaint by John Goodman, 50, the Bangkok based ASEAN Regional Director of Ogilvy & Mather and Asia-Pacific President of Ogilvy Action, that British High Commission officials in Malaysia did nothing last month, after his daughter was abducted by his mother and held inside the Embassy of the Republic of Guinea in Kuala Lumpur

Mr. Goodman had won custody in the British High Court last October with the agreement of the mother, Guinean born Kaissa Traore, 40. However she ran off with her daughter during a visit to Singapore authorised by the High Court in London, and then crossed the border to Malaysia.

Mr.Goodman, from Liverpool, flew to Kuala Lumpur on January 10th to get his daughter back. He said he had received a letter from Kaissa Traore’s London lawyer stating: “ My client will not return ***** to your client unless there is a financial settlement, and if there is no financial settlement before the end of January she will take ***** to the Republic of Guinea”.

It was followed by emails from Kaissa Traore stating: “The new President of Guinea will inform the UK authority that any UK court is invalid. The lawyers are colonial, support apartheid , are limited mentally, and cannot understand slavery has now become a crime”.

Mr. Goodman claimed that when he went to the British High Commission officials told him there was nothing they could do.

Mr. Goodman said he was left alone to deal with the threat that his daughter would taken to the impoverished and corrupt country and he would never see her again, unless he paid out the equivalent of US$1million.

Armed guard in Thonglor Bangkok

At a meeting on January 21 at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton Hotel overseen by the Republic of Guinea’s Commercial Attaché he agreed to pay. He put down the first US$10,000 and fled back to Bangkok with his daughter where he put her under armed guard. He does not intend to pay any more.

Speaking at his home in Thonglor, Bangkok, Mr. Goodman said: “I regret to say the assistance I was given by the Foreign Office and its staff in Kuala Lumpur was less than useless.
“At the end of the day an 11-yr-old British girl was held for ransom in a foreign embassy against her will. The threat was that she would be taken to West Africa and never be seen again by her father and grandparents and friends unless I paid the equivalent of US$1million.
“This threat was enforced by diplomats of a West African country, which is almost a failed state, and where corruption is rife. Yet not one British diplomat was prepared to help or could make a decision.
“My lawyers had to go back to the High Court and secure an order that they did so. But even then officials told me they could not get a letter to the Guinean Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, because the Guinea Embassy fax was down.
“I wonder if these people have heard of messengers.

“My daughter has lived with me for the last six years since Kiassa and I separated. That was the mother’s wish too. My daughter has never been a citizen of Guinea. She has only been there to visit, the last time when she was six, but then she needed a visa to do so. She has nothing in common with Guinea. She cannot speak the language.

“I believe the country does not even have an English language school. There has been rioting there and government troops have been firing on demonstrators.”

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “Mr. Goodman has received consular assistance. We are not able to offer more detailed comment”.

Kaissa Taore, the mother

Kaissa Traore said: “It was not a kidnap. I told the father where his daughter was. I do not accept the High Court judgment. I did not go to the High Court. The British government refused me a visa, can you imagine? I’m a Mandingo and we are proud people and I’m the wife of a President of one of the world’s foremost companies. The matter is now in the hands of the government of the Republic of Guinea. My daughter is a citizen of Guinea”.
Traore’s father, a politician, was one of the founding fathers of the troubled post French-colonial Guinea, currently run by a military junta.
Guinea, though rich in natural resources is one of the poorest countries in the world and most corrupt in Africa. It has been ruled by a series of military juntas which have been accused of committing widespread atrocities on the people.
On January On 21 January 2010 the military junta appointed Jean-Marie Dore as Prime Minister of a six-month transition government, leading up to promised elections.

British drug baron’s luxury Thai life on the run - updated

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 7, 2010

in General News

. 63 Comments

Link to Sunday Mirror ‘British drug baron’s luxury life

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Feb 7 2009

Pictures by Andrew Chant and Hua Hin News

Darren Oxley

A wealthy Briton who skipped bail during his high profile trial for drugs dealing has been able to live the ‘high life’ in Thailand due to incompetence and bungling by police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Darren Oxley, who was described in court as ‘violent’ and a ‘man you don’t mess with’, and also ‘with considerable amounts of money’ has been living undisturbed like a Lord in his tropical mansion in a beach resort.
Today Oxley, 42, should be in jail in Britain, for his last role as the leader of a drugs empire which pushed Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines in clubs in England.

Oxley House, Hua Hin Darren's home away from, well, er, jail

But while British authorities can track down parking offenders to Europe they have done nothing to reign in this high profile criminal even though there is a working extradition treaty.
While supposedly on the run the British Embassy in Bangkok has happily handed him a new passport to continue his life in the sun in a palatial mansion in Hua Hin, a town known as ‘The Royal Resort’ 150 miles south of Bangkok.
Nine members of his gang were jailed for a total of 60 years in 2001 at Sheffield Crown Court for dealing drugs in clubs like the town’s ‘Republic’.
But Oxley, who stood in the dock with them, was now nowhere to be seen when it came to sentencing. He never bothered to hang around. After skipping bail he was already in Thailand where he bought a Lamborghini, Bentley and Range Rover and took a Thai wife.
A bench warrant issued by the judge became worthless, because he had already fled the coop.

Darren Oxley -right- near the Whitings home in Hua Hin

Oxley has since been living the good life and laughing at British police. In Thailand he set up a building company and called ‘Oxley Homes’ in Hua Hin. The company has now been linked to a fire-bombing, and attempted murder.

Donald Whiting now paralysed

The major victim is former US Marine Don Whiting, 65, who bought a home from Oxley and then complained about being defrauded over water bills on his property. Whiting’s car was firebombed in July 2008 and then on October 24th 2008 he was gunned down at his home. Whiting is paralysed from the waist down and will never walk again.
He took took six bullets. Four pierced his lungs and exited, one was removed from his stomach, and one is still embedded in his spine. He needs 24 hours a day medical attention.

Bullet lodged in Whiting's spine

The day after the shooting, claims Donald Whitting, nicknamed ‘Biff’, he was due to give evidence in five cases of fraud against Oxley in the court at the provincial capital of Prachuap Khiri Khan.
After the incident Thai police said they had issued warrants for the arrest of Oxley and his wife Janpen/Napatsorn Oxley, 32, and five days later on January 29th she was arrested at she tried to cross the border to Cambodia with the equivalent of 6000 pounds in her handbag.
She was taken back to Hua Hin where she denied being involved and was released without charge to return to nearby ‘Oxley House’. Police meanwhile attempted quite successfully to keep a lid on the scandal by asking local newspapers to control their forums, which had drawn out angry comments from local foreign residents. They claimed the comments could interfere with their enquiries.
But in October 29th after intervention by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva three people were arrested for attempted murder and they named Oxley’s wife as the person who commissioned it.

Two cousins and gunman in white T-shirt - Hua Hin News

Cousins Yuthawan Areesawat, 36, and Sarat Areesawat, 41 from Chumpon, South Thailand, and Eakanan Jitmahima, from Pathum Thani, Central Thailand, admitted they had attempted the murder of Whiting with a .38 after being paid 200,000 Thai baht (just 4000 pounds) by Mrs. Oxley at one of her other homes in Hua Hin. Police easily tracked down the money transfer.
The men also admitted to setting fire to Donald Whiting’s car for a fee of 600 pounds.
But Janpen, who apparently had never spoken to Donald Whiting, or his partner Dolly Damson, Vice Chancellor of Stamford International University in Thailand, refused to implicate her husband.

Janpen Oxley cuts a smart appearance at Bangkok South Criminal Court. On a conspiracy to murder charge she is likely to still be on bail in years to come

Donald Whiting is dumbstruck. He said: “The only person I had a row with was Darren Oxley. He was threatening me. He told me some harm could come to me. I could prove he was cheating me and was due in court the day after the shooting to testify against him.
“Sure his wife is guilty but I am sure she would never have ordered my shooting without her husband’s say so. Foreign builders and estate agents have been holding expatriates to ransom in Hua Hin. Many have lost their live savings because of scams.
“How can this Briton Darren Oxley even be allowed to live in Thailand? I have written to the Crown Prosecution Service and police and get nothing from them. The British Embassy will tell me nothing.”
Janpen Oxley, who entered a monastery and changed her name to Napatsorn while on bail, has not implicated her husband. It is difficult for foreigners to get bail on murder charges. The Thai legal system can be cumbersome and dysfunctional given the right circumstances. All the Thai defendants, bar the actual shooter Eakanan have got bail.
The trial could last over two years, sitting just one day a month. If Mrs. Oxley, also known as ‘Sarah’ is acquitted she can appeal and her bail extended. If she loses her appeal than she can appeal to the Supreme Court – the appeals process can take as long as eight years.
Said Dolly Samson, 62: “We want Janpen to feel the full weight of the law. We want Darren Oxley brought to justice. I am concerned for Donald’s health and whether he will be around to see justice is done.”

Gunmen Eakanan did not make it to the special court

Despite intervention by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for a speedy resolution of the case, when the Sunday Mirror attended a special hearing for Donald Whiting and Dolly to give evidence at the Bangkok South Criminal Court, as they cannot travel, the hearing had to be adjourned for three months.
Everyone was there except the accused gunman. The prison authorities had forgotten to send the assassin Eakanan to face his accusers.
So what then did the British authorities do? In statements to the local press South Yorkshire Police claimed firstly that they were seeking to extradite Oxley and then that there were problems with extradition.
When we asked the Yorkshire Police under the Freedom Of Information Act whether they had actually tried to get Oxley back to the UK they refused to say either way, explaining: “To give a statement of the reasons why neither confirming nor denying is appropriate in this case, would itself involve the disclosure of exempt information, therefore under Section 17(4), no explanation can be given.
This should not be taken as an inference that the information you have requested, does or does not exist”.

The Sunday Mirror story

This is civil service double-speak meaning as this is an ongoing enquiry ‘we do not have to say anything’. This has left Donald Whiting puzzled as to how British justice works, let alone the Thai system.

Enquiries with the Thai authorities showed that there never ever been a request for extradition which was confirmed by the CPS, who have now destroyed Oxley’s file. This is despite a suggestion by the South Yorkshire Police force to the local press that the opposite was the case.

A CPS spokesman said: “Due to the type and age of the offence, the file on Oxley has been destroyed, in accordance with CPS policy on retention. Oxley left the country before sentencing, so should he return to the UK, he would be arrested and brought to court to be sentenced. There is no record of any steps taken to extradite Oxley. As there was no extradition started, the Thai authorities were not involved”.

Said wheelchair bound Donald Whiting: “It’s difficult to hold any respect for the British authorities. This says little for British justice or the reputation of the British police.”

Darren Oxley has strongly denied the allegations made against him. He insists he had nothing to do with the shooting of Donald Whiting.

“Donald Whiting had a case against my wife, but it was not due in court for a couple of months. He was actually suing another developer. I was never wanted in connection with the shooting of Donald Whiting. I have even been to police and they told me not to waste their time”.

(Donald Whiting admits he did in fact have issues with a Greek developer in Hua Hin)

“This is being exaggerated out of all proportion. I am being made to look like the Krays (an old London crime family of three brothers, who specialised in extortion, torture and murder, but who loved their mum, and donated to charity).

“As it stands I was not convicted in the British court and as such am still innocent. Yes, police may want to talk to me if I go back. But their case against me is weak. A lot of it is hearsay from other people in the dock.

“Further Donald Whiting has had problems with other builders and even tried to extort money from them, yet it is me who has been labelled the criminal.”

Meanwhile police in South Yorkshire are boasting ‘another significant fall in quarterly crime figures’.

Legal Note: This site has been updated and corrected where necessary. Everybody has of course a right of reply. In particular I have removed some of the details from Darren Oxley’s passport as I would not wish to be party to any crime or indeed for Darren Oxley to be the subject of crime. He wrote expressing his fear that he was ”wide open for anyone to use my details for anything such as fraud”.……

On her Majesty’s Pattaya Service - continued - UPDATED

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 6, 2010

in General News

. 3 Comments

This is a blog only

So there I was singing ‘The wheels of the buss go round round, round, round’ to daughter Annie when my computer whirrs, coughs, spits, rings a bell and up comes that name again, flashing on screen…Peter Storrow.

Blog at www.andrew-drummond.com

Readers of this blog will remember his name from late last year. He’s the upcoming supremo of the commercial gay sex scene in Pattaya, who has told Britain’s Customs & Revenue and the courts that he is penniless and lives in the Malaysia hotel in Soi Ngam Duplee in Bangkok!

His Pattaya mansion apparently belongs to a friend.

Storrow also got his picture taken with British Ambassador Quentin Quayle, along with others affectionately known locally as the ‘Gay McMafia’.

Commercial attache, Ambassador, Gordon May, Glen Campbell, Jim Lumsden, Peter Storrow and some hotelier who wants to get into every picture. The Ambassador should have paid heed to his Embassy's 'Know Before You Go' campaign

Last year Storrow was declared bankrupt. This is one of Britain’s new industries. People come from far and wide to the UK to be declared bankrupt because they are automatically discharged after a year.

Did I say automatically? Well, some mistake here. Storrow’s representative went to Brighton Court on January 25th to request his discharge papers. … and never got them.

Seems Customs & Revenue do not believe his tales of poverty and Storrow is not going to be discharged all that easily.

Everybody wants to go to the ball and join the line-up with these British Vice Consuls. No just joking. That's Storrow up front

Customs & Revenue apparently monitored Storrow on a trip back to the UK last November ostensibly for a birthday party in Brighton. (He tells them I gather that he never goes back to the UK) Back in Britain there were a lot of heated exchanges with his partners in profit, and clumsy attempts to move assets into different names. There are properties all over the place, Sussex, London, companies in the Isle of Man etc. I could go on.

But it’s not only the Customs & Revenue Storrow has to worry about. Both the Met Police and SOCA (the Serious Organised Crime Agency) also want to come to the ball.

They are very interested in Storrow’s relationship with Lenny ‘The Loon’ Poole, who is a guy you don’t mess with. ….. Well I suppose you can now actually… as he’s dead.

Lenny is an old time crime figure, dating back, well possibly even to the 50’s. His job was to launder cash for crime syndicates. Well maybe that’s too posh a phrase. Let’s just say ‘the boys’, in South London.

A lot of the crime was white collar crime apparently - not stick-ups but more of the VAT fraud type - through various companies, some established in London House, Croydon. Looks like Customs and Revenue may have lost out in many ways.

A lot of the cash gains apparently went through our Mr. Storrow, initially to Spain, where Storrow also has a toreador called ‘Miguel’ apparently, and more recently to Thailand. Of course the local police probably welcome this new source of income.

Lenny’s widow ‘Linda’ , aka ‘Loopy’, likes to keep monetary affairs in the family. She has failed to make a number of appointments with the Customs and Revenue for a variety of reasons, creaking bones, a cough, runny nose, varicose veins, broken zimmer frame, ‘Just don’t feel up to it boys’ etc.

Glen Campbell and bodyguard (in frock and wig) at Pattaya Gay Festival

Anyway to add to Storrow’s worries is the fact that his side-kick in Pattaya, Glen Campbell – no he cannot sing ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ with any conviction- is himself being taken to court by Customs and Revenue to be declared bankrupt on February 10th.

Glen, aka ‘Cleo’, has a company (well Storrow’s really) called aptly Asp(land) Ltd., with a chap called Lord Andrew Dunton. Yes, you could not make this up, and it’s a name that could come back and bite him in the…..a…nether regions. But this story is out of this world in many ways. One of the properties Customs and Revenue have been looking at is in Mimbridge, near Chobham, Surrey, at the exact spot where the Martians landed in H.G. Wells’ ’War of the Worlds’.

Andy Dunton...Lord? And Lord Andrew Dunton? Well I can’t tell you too much about this chap (left) today but he is not one of England’s ‘Stately Homos’*. Used to have a pub in Brighton and worked as a doorman at Brighton’s gay Revenge Club, I gather. Wait he was also chairman of Brighton Gay Pride and according to the Brighton Argus and Brighton internet gay columnist Rita Snatch was once stabbed in Brighton and went on Meridien TV to talk about homophobia.

God, is this exciting? Will it never end? Storrow is busily consolidating himself in Pattaya trusting, with his lawyers, that Customs and Revenue will not be able to see their way through the endless pole-dancing Somchais and Somsaks on his company records.

Of course his cause is not helped by his best mates, Gordon May and Jim Lumsden, who kicked off ‘Boyztown’ in Pattaya twenty odd years ago, and were friends of the late departed Scotsman Martin Frutin, ex-Pattaya Rotary, Pattaya Masons, and Edinburgh Sheriff court where he was convicted of possessing child pornography.

Customs and Revenue apparently have a video-tape of street party during last November’s Gay Festival in which Lumsden puts an end to any doubt as to who owns five shop houses in a row, or about half of Boyztown.

Jim Lumsden giving his oratory at the Pattaya Gay Festival

Dressed in a frock - and believe you me, after dozens of face lifts this guy does look better made up as a woman - Lumsden pointed to Storrow’s properties and told the assembled crowd that the shells of Storrow’s properties within eyesight were alone worth over 50 million baht…..just about the size of the cash Revenue & Customs are looking for…(But they say they are ready to revise upwards)

(Lumsden had incidentally been introduced by a compere who joked: ‘We all know Madame Jim, don’t we? Its always good to see a new face here though” )

As Storrow (left) listens grimly

Perhaps Lumsden knew he was being filmed. He did not bat an eyelid to the cameraman. Anyway Madame Jim as he is known has come into a bit of luck of late. He he has always publicly decried under aged sexual encounters in the gay scene in Pattaya and has even written about it on the net - but he is a smart guy with a nose for a good deal.

Last year Britons Robert Horsman and Malcolm Payne, 59, were arrested together with a German and American in Pattaya in Operation Naga, conducted by the Children and Womens Division of the Royal Thai Police and with assistance from Britain’s CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) unit.

The operation was trumpeted by CEOP Chief Jim Gamble as a triumph of international police co-operation. “We share a clear, joint commitment to prevent harm to children. The Royal Thai Police have demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders and CEOP will continue to proactively support that commitment”

Anyway Jim might have been being a little optimistic. Payne has long since been let out of the coop, and others too I am told. But Payne, who used to run the ‘Regulation’ gay bondage shop in Islington, N. London, had a house to sell ‘on the darkside’, and apparently quickly too. In stepped Jim with an offer of 1/3 of the asking price, so I am told. Going, going gone. Now that is what I call back-scratching. The house will of course be in a company name.

Back to the Pattaya Gay Festival. Storrow could have got up and pointed to the other side of the street featuring ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ and made some comments on how that little empire was built. But that would no doubt have led to handbags at dawn.

Finally Kevin Quill, a man who without any doubt at all was framed on drugs charges, is to be released from prison hospital in Bangkok in just a few days and transferred home. Once in England he will testify about Storrow and other related matters. It was Quill who sold Storrow his business in the first place.

Kevin Quill - Man with a vengeance

What was it again? Standard Chartered?

Just how Storrow and his local police pals, square off against any investigations or requests from the UK is anybody’s guess, I suppose. But nothing comes for free.

*This is a strictly non sexist blog. But old jokes are allowed.

Link to Brighton Country Court

This is a blog only
On her Majesty’s Pattaya Service (2009)

Getaway at last to the eastern seaboard, where a chap called Peter Storrow is celebrating his birthday in his gay venue called the ‘Copa Show Bar’. I don’t go in, but my man-boy does. I take a look around the street and see some chaps who also look definitely out of place in Soi Pattayaland 3.

clubs-and-vice
It turns out Scotland Yard’s CO14, the Clubs and Vice Unit, have been giving certain places in Pattaya the once over with a number of ranking Thai officials from Bangkok.
Not only that, but Pattayaland Soi 3 has also been attracting the interest of another arm of British law enforcement, even more influential and powerful than CO14.
CO14 ‘Keeping London Safer’ could have a field day with Brits in Pattaya I suspect. The other unit, working for her Majesty’s Customs & Revenue should just set up office!

Birthday boy Peter Storrow left with Glenn Campbell and friend

The Yard guys have been staying in Bangkok at the downmarket Plaza Athenee - well downmarket compared to where the boys from Customs & Revenue are staying - the Millenium Hilton.
Still all this activity outside the Copa Show bar got me thinking. So I googled and googled so to speak, and then I came up with this wonderful photograph below.
Yes, it’s our Ambassador His Excellency Quinton Quayle, with a chap called Gordon May, another called Jim Lumsden, a chap called Glen Campbell, no not the singer, and Peter Storrow the owner of the Copa Bar, and a place called Splash (bit like a seafood restaurant, but where you can pick your boy from a water tank; crabs too I suppose) He also owns a gay gym, and a small hotel attached to his bars.

Introducing Ambassador Quayle to the chorus line of Pattaya's commercial gay sex industry

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has one of the biggest gay groups in the British civil service. Quinton is not a member but it’s nice to see him showing solidarity.
But not to put too fine a point on it, here is our Ambassador posing with all the Brits who control or have controlled the biggest slice of the gay commercial sex scene in Pattaya for the last 20 years. Still all power to ‘The British Chamber -Eastern Seaboard Members Cleansing Sub-Committee.

No commerical sex business here - just Thailand's Deadliest Catch

(Actually accusing anyone of running a sex business in Pattaya could be libellous in the Thai context. A special enquiry by Chonburi Police has revealed, and I have a copy of the report, that there is absolutely no sign of commercial sexual activity at Boyz Boyz Boyz in Pattayland Soi 3, and I am sure the rest of the bar and club owners in Pattaya can secure similar statements)
May and Lumsden are the controversial creators of Boyztown and set up ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ and the Ambiance Hotel with £1/4 m cash they had earned or ‘misappropriated’ ( depends which version you want to believe) from an Edinburgh Property Company called Teague Homes in the late 1980’s.

Ian MacDonald, in blue, died two days after this picture was taken

Two people who invested into Lumsden and May’s businesses in Pattaya suffered terrible misfortunes. First Iain Macdonald, the 27-yr-old gay stepson of the Provost of Inverness (The English equivalent is Mayor) died in a fire in the Ambiance Hotel after bequeathing, strangely enough, his 250,000 pound shareholding in Thailand to Gordon May’s Thai boyfriend. (The phoney will here was signed by James Lumsden)

Gordon May and local Mason

The family in Scotland never got their money back of course. Macdonald’s mother Eileen made this affidavit in which she made it quite clear what she thought happened to the cash.

Kevin Quill while out on bail thinking he could prosecute his partners

Then, second, along came Kevin Quill from West Yorkshire, who invested 1/3 million pounds with May and Lumsden in a business called Patika -with bar-gym-hotel-and the water tank.

Kevin Quill has never been a drugs user but was arrested in the hotel’s taxi on his way to the airport on a trip back to England. When police opened his cases they found a massive haul of Benson & Hedges cigarettes and inside one packed in one carton they found almost 100 yaa baa methamphetamine tablets.

While in jail awaiting trial Quill found that he had been stripped of the directorship of his own company, his apartment had been let out for rent, and that even his sister who came to visit was being charged for the use of his own car and driver!

The British Customs Liaison Officer at the British Embassy suspected immediately that Quill had been framed and the Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok General Nopadol Somboonsap conducted an investigation, which confirmed everybody’s suspicions.

The Embassy presented the famous ‘Deryck Fisher Letter ‘ to the court……to absolutely no affect. No consular official would testify.

Quill was convicted, acquitted, and convicted again at the Supreme Court after coming back from England for the verdict. He is currently in Khlong Prem Prison Hospital with throat cancer.

He eventually got his property back on the condition he withdrew cases against Lumsden and May. And he claims that the policeman who enthusiastically took his complaint never proceeded with the case or passed it onto the prosecutor.

Jim Lumsden (right) A good summary of the story was published in the Glasgow Herald under the headline THE STRANGE TALE OF TRANVESTITES, CROOKED COPS, A MUTILATED BODY AND TWO SCOTS KNOWN AS THE GAY MACMAFIA

I was sued after the Bangkok Post ran an investigation - already published in the UK - headed: ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Boyz’. The issue continues here. Thankfully a whip round among journalists and editors in the UK and assistance from the BAJ have paid my costs.

The case continues and will probably run another ten years!

Anyway as the new guy on the block - he has actually taken over from May and Lumsden as the big man in ‘Boyztown’ - Storrow counts the two Scots amongst his close, friends and has been spotted dining with them all over town. So why the sudden interest from Customs and Revenue?

Well the answer lies at Brighton Court where in January this year Storrow was declared bankrupt. The poor guy does not have a penny, or does he? He gave the court an address in Soi Ngam Duplee in Bangkok. Actually he gave the court the address of the Malaysia hotel, which has its own cottage industry I gather. But in Pattaya he seems to have built this the house below in Soi Kowtelo 4 - actually its two houses - one is for the maids I guess. But he can’t own all six cars in the forecourt, I suppose.

Storrow's compound with 2 houses five cars

Then of course Storrow has got his club, hotel and fish tank. Customs and Revenue want 1 million UK pounds from him. I don’t know how they came to this estimate because as far as I can deter, H.M. Customs and Revenue do not have a record of Storrow paying any money anywhere.

At least I paid tax for twenty years in the UK, and am doing so again, so that some Pattaya Brits can get their disability allowances.

Front door cop

Anyway Storrow should be cautious - and indeed I guess he is. He has a picture of his local police colonel on his front gate. Now that is some service.

But if I were Storrow I would be cautious. Whoever wanted his money, the money he does not have that is, could just grab it, abstractly I suppose, and say afterwards well he never had it anyway, as he is bankrupt and here is the court order. Get my drift.

Goodness knows how Storrow travels business class.

Still these ‘Solvency Practitioners’ are ruthless I am told and will leave no stone unturned. They have been finding stuff all over the place. I’d be off to the Cayman Islands if I had enough for the fare., or take Thai citizenship.

May and Lumsden by the way are in the Chamber of Commerce as directors of Baan Suay Siam Co., Ltd. Business: Hotel. Where? Have not a clue.

The newspaper you can trust would not say boo to a goose! Updated March 09

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 3, 2010

in General News

. 11 Comments

Blog at www.andrew-drummond.com

THOUSANDS OF IDIOTS DETECTED
Blog only

Knock! Knock! Anybody there?
They don’t get it do they. The total combined intellect of the Bangkok Post has not yet cottoned on to the fact that the GT-200 is a total hoax, as are the Sniffex, ADE651, and Alpha 6 bomb/drugs/ insurgent detectors which Thailand has bought by the cart-load.

I mean who would buy a machine, powered by a human and nothing else which can detect anything from drugs to explosives, or even a choc-ice if you programme the nonexistent chip! The only things these machines can detect are idiots.
And who would pay US$18,000 for each machine? Well, China, Thailand, Iraq, and Mexico for starters. Did I hear someone say ‘kickback mountain!’ Well,you could be forgiven. The recently arrested Jimbo, manufacturer of the ADE651, complained: ‘But I only got 11 million dollars!’ – of a US$80 million deal with Iraq – the rest, he said, went on commissions and training. Some commissions! Some training! But lets not apportion blame yet, says Prime Minister Abhisit.
So anyway out comes the Bangkok Post today and with a report by writers Anucha Charoenpo and King-oua Laohong. Yes it takes two of them to come out with this grey drivel. This after endless days of the paper quoting different experts as to how the machines really work.
“The cabinet is concerned about the detector’s reliability and consistency and invited soldiers, security experts and drugs officers to provide information on its use at its meeting yesterday.
The invited guests expressed satisfaction with the detectors, but the cabinet wanted more academic research to support their claims”.
It’s going to take them a week to find out what BBC Newsnight established with both the GT200 and ADE651 in about 3 minutes. While we are not going to take the matter forward with this sort of reporting, full marks to the Bangkok Post for its opinion poll, possibly one of the most nonsensical polls I have ever seen.

bangkokpostfool

It posed the question: ‘Do you think the devices should be tested?’
A staggering 33% said No. (the figure representing this group has lost only half his legs)
14 per cent said ‘Don’t know’ (the figure representing this group looks like he has been ripped in half by a claymore)
And only 53% said yes. (And this guy is fine)

So I guess we need diagrams to spell it out :-).
But look how mellow people are taking this while fellow citizens, soldiers and police, are being killed in south Thailand. It’s almost as if they do not care. But isn’t it sweet that according to the Bangkok Post 47 per cent of people questioned did not want an ‘end to their doubts’.

That’s easily solved. Just take out a subscription to the Bangkok Post!

Update Feb 15: Well since I wrote this. The Bangkok Post has been trundling along still not totally convinced. Well one writer in tjhe Post Database section called it an outright fraud, and a scientist rambled on about nothing, but clearly the editor does not read his own paper.

In Sunday’s Bangkok Post - well the splash actually - Pansak Siriruchatapong, the man who is supposed to take these machines apart and test them for the government is quoted as saying he cannot take them apart because the purchasers signed a confidentiality agreement!

GT-200 courtesy of Pantip Plaz dot com

The government therefore cannot disclose anything about how these machines (don’t) work.

You can’t make this up. However I suspect on this occasion the ‘foreign’ editor of the Sunday Bangkok Post is having a private joke.

And there’s more: “Jehrming Tohtayong a member of the ‘National Security Panel’ said members had discussed the prospects of holding laboratory tests, but said they were concerned this would violate the seller’s intellectual rights”

Some National Security Panel!

(Reminds me of the Danish prospective PM who was asked what he would do if his country was invaded. “Pick up the phone and surrender! No on second thoughts the Danish politician is a lot smarter)

Some intellectual rights!

Oh and here’s the link to the original BBC Newsnight report. The second report where the GT200 is taken apart has already been shown on Thai TV Channel 3. And a Thai military man has already admitted on Thai TV that there is nothing on the GT200.

So what’s happening in Britain, where Health and Safety issues mean that you cannot get an aspirin in some hotels, to Gary Bolton the boss of Global Technical which produces the GT200? Nothing at all it seems. So far he is laughing all the way to the bank…of the West Indies.

FOOTNOTE: In fairness to the Bangkok Post on March 7th 2010 Spectrum published a much fuller report concluding I guess that the GT200 does not work. Though of course in its ‘even handed way’ quoted several military who though it did. Buried in its report however was a quote from general Genera Pathompong who had taken a GT 200 apart and basically found nothing.

British banker ambushed by gunmen - two dead

Published

Andrew Drummond

on February 3, 2010

in General News

. 0 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Feb 2 2009

Daily Telegraph

An elderly Briton, who described himself as a retired banker, said he ran down two teenagers killing them both when they ambushed him with a gun on the island of Cebu in the Philippines, police said today.

In a bid to protect his 28-yr-old Filipina wife Juriza, and daughter, Savanna, aged 4, Manchester born, Frank Bell, 60, said he ran his Kia Sorento over the teenagers, one of whom, it was claimed, was having an affair with his wife.

Today two separate police squads were investigating the circumstances of the deaths, and the relationship of the two dead youths , Borja and Harold Flores, aged 17 and 19, to Mrs. Bell. Both are Philppine nationals but Borja also has a US passport.

In a statement to Cebu Provincial Police Bell – full name Richard Frank Bell, said that he was driving when he was overtaken by the youths on a motorcycle and shot at several times.

City Lights Garden Condos

The youths also rode on ahead, it was alleged, parked up, and fired several more shots as he approached. “According to Bell, he hit the motorcycle where the gunman and the minor were, and they were flung to the side of the road,” said Sr. Police Supt. Erson Digal.

After he reported the incident to police they found three slugs in his car and went to the scene to find the bodies. Police Superintendent Rudolfo Albotra (Jnr) said by phone from the Provincial Police Headquarters: “ There appears to be a discrepancy in the story as to where the bodies were knocked over and found. Mr. Bell said he ran the boys over in self defence.

“Police in Balamban where the incident occurred, are also looking at allegations made by the family of the boy, Borja, that he was having an affair with Mr. Bell’s wife. Tests have been done on his hands to check for gun powder residue. We need to rule out the possibility that he fired the shots himself.”

At the City Lights Garden condominium a management official said Bell had been resident in Cebu for two years and before that in Manila, after leaving Hong Kong where he was he was in ‘ banking’.

Ouch! First salvo in Pattaya newspaper war?

Published

Andrew Drummond

on January 28, 2010

in General News

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Blog Only(UPDATED)

Pattaya Times accused Pattaya People boss of involvement in ‘gold share scam’

Pattaya Daily News publishes link to ‘criminal record’ of Pattaya People boss

The first shots have been be fired in a Pattaya newspaper war. A new-comer on the scene, ‘The Pattaya Times’ engineered by an ubiquitous American called Drew Noyes - aka ‘Fringe Benefit’ - has accused Niels ‘Istedgade’ Colov publisher of the Pattaya People, and boss of Pattaya People TV as a man involved in a gold scam which has defrauded foreigners out of millions.

And then a couple of days ago the Pattaya Daily News, published links to a site, which identified Colov as a former pimp with convictions of living off immoral earning, unlawful coercion, vandalism and receiving stolen goods.

Colov is also the leader of the Foreign Police Volunteers in Pattaya.

At the end of its report of the death of Martin Frutin, 69, the Pattaya Daily News (which incidentally seems to have been alone in pointing out that the Scots millionaire and man about town, who hob-nobbed with Pattaya publishers and worked for Colov, also had a conviction for possessing child pornography) invited comments. ’Somchai’ posted the following links.

http://translate.google.com/

http://www.update.dk/cfje/lovbasen.nsf/ID/LB03872534
google translate here

The details about Niels Storm Martens Colov come in what purpots to be a Danish legal judgment on a case in which Colov sued two journalists for calling him a heroin trafficker and other horrible things like running pyramid scams. The journalists lost their case.

Lawyers for Colov are seen to admit on this site: “It is true that in 1970 he was convicted for violence, unlawful coercion, receiving stolen goods, vandalism and pimping in Vesterbro’s porn environment”.

This was in the 70s. Convictions, if any, are likely to be spent. (For the details one would have to go to BT, Ekstra Bladet , Jyllands Post or Politiken files.)

And indeed the lawyers could plead that now Mr. Colov was now an upstanding member of the community, charity giver, devout Buddhist, former Rotary club, President etc. His past was irrelevant.

Well bless his cotton socks. What a remarkable achievement. And, if any of this is true, what a tribute to Thailand and the power of Buddhism and vegetarianism.

They transformed, a man, who once may have been considered a foreign lowlife, into an upstanding benefactor of great achievements. Colov is a Buddhist vegetarian, a criminal to a police chief, a thief to a benfactor. Actually this is a remarkable news feature in itself. An addition to the ‘Reformed Club’. An excellent cleansing.

The Cop

Niels is also a Scout master and organises international scouting jamborees - the sort of places we needed to keep Frutin out of, guess.

But this is Pattaya where truth is all elusive. More than anywhere else these rags become the servants of their masters whims, opening doors to the local hierarchy and grovelling to police and judiciary. My library is full pictures of local editors sitting down to dine with people I would not go near with the proverbial barge pole, all taken from their ‘Social’ and ‘High Society’ pages!

Colov denies all the above allegations. And indeed there seems to be a conspiracy afoot.

And I have to state unequivocably that I am making no suggestion whatsoever that Neil Colov is up to any criminal activitity in Thailand, nor do I have any evidence of such. To Niels I say, the family resort Pattaya needs you to draw from your rich experiences and continue to contribute to the local community.

Nor indeed do I have personal evidence as to his former years in Denmark apart from some very faded newspaper cuttings.

Of course other people do not share this opinion, like for instance the ‘Pattaya Times’, who think he is involved in a massive gold shares fraud. More specifically they suggest he is a silent partner of Lance Shaw, an international confidence trickster who was scandalously released on bail at the end of last year by Pattaya Court. Shaw has openly boasted that he pays off the authorities, and taunts his victims. The Pattaya Times believes the death knell is ringing for the old time foreign criminals in Pattaya ( I guess to give way to a new lot).

Drew Noyes, the man behind the Pattaya Times, has been referred to as ‘Fringe Benefit’ because he seems to get himself invited to every party in town. His name is all over the local press, not because he is the guy on the fringe of the crowd who never seems to get his round in, as somebody has suggested. He is a man with a mission. To make money I think and be adored? Well, that was my first impression after doing a ‘Google’, but I have now spoken to Drew, who insists he is really all about making Pattaya a better place.

” You won’t see endless dead bodies, or any for that matter, in the newspaper I manage and edit,” he says, which is a great relief.

The broadsheet ‘Pattaya Times’ is apparently the biggest English language newspaper in Thailand outside Bangkok and is distributed in 485 locations on the eastern seaboard. I guess I must be a little out of touch as I have not seen a copy, but Drew has promised to put me right. Drew also says that with nine kids he does not have a lot of time for socialising but does go to the big events ‘especially if asked by someone of great power’. He has suggested we meet up at a forthcoming Breast Cancer fund-raiser but as its called ‘Pink Polo’ I may have to desist. I guess also the boss of Kingpower will be there.

Anyway newspaper bosses are having a go at each other. In England this only seems to happen when Editors steal each other’s girlfriends ( e.g. Donald Trelford of the Observer v Andrew Neil Sunday Times, in, ironically, the era of the ‘Asian Babes’) So welcome indeed to the world of Pattaya journalism where in the pursuit of truth one can freely show video and post reports of of foreign tourists and residents in all sort of post death situations without any thought whatsoever of their families or concept of human dignity, except thank goodness apparently - the Pattaya Times.

The journalist

I have always known Niels as ’Istedgade Neils’ by the way. Istedgade is one street in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro Red light area, at the back of central station, once very seedy and full of porno shops but, if we are to believe his critics, like former Neils, changed over the years to something new and improved.

Don’t go to war boys. It will be messy. Anything could happen. There are too many secrets out there. The next thing you know Rotary will be going to war with the Masons with machetes, the Pattaya ExPat Club, fighting the Pattaya City ExPat Club with zimmer frames , Tourist Police Assistants in a War against Volunteer Police…with pepper spray, Boyztown-Sunnee Plaza with flailing leotards… its endless.

Eveybody has his secrets. Best keep them…………. Or contact me/us here.

Footnote: Martin Frutin was a ‘respected member’ of the Masons and Pattaya Rotary Club.

Niels Colov is a former President of Rotary Club - Jomtien & Pattaya, current President of the Pattaya Expats Club…….and has a law firm.

Drew Noyes is a financial consultant , formed the opposition Pattaya City Expats Club…….and has a law firm.

The PDN has now removed Somchai’s links. This is what the PDN appears to consider ‘investigative journalism’. (This link shows a condescending Thai reporter/editor following what she considers a rather stupid foreign reporter about town. Very racist and patronising, but the author does not realise it. The Thai reporter/editor misses the story, but she does not realise that either)

Coming soon: ”Dear Chief Reporter, was it necessary to use that electric stun gun while interviewing that British tourist?”

Thailand hides weapon of mass destruction

Published

Andrew Drummond

on January 27, 2010

in General News

. 7 Comments

Blog only

Today a pink and red faced son William Matthew Drummond, younger brother to Annie 2 years 4 months, made his debut shortly after 7 am, to the delight of his mother Pat and father journalist Andrew Drummond, at a hospital in Thailand, near a 7/11, a canal, a motorcycle queue, and a lot of overhead wiring.

WMD? On second thoughts make that Matthew William Drummond. Mother is doing fine. Father and Annie are pooped.

Flamboyant Scot on Yard child sex abuse watch list dies in Thailand

Published

Andrew Drummond

on January 27, 2010

in General News

. 2 Comments

‘His adopted son was by his side’

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok - January 26 2010
A flamboyant Scots businessman Martin Frutin, who left Scotland after being convicted of possessing child pornography in his Edinburgh mansion died in the Thai resort of Pattaya early today.

Martin Frutin with Scots musician Frankie Miller - May 2005

Martin Frutin, one time dancer, rock group manager, and travel agent, who was convicted of possessing indecent images of young boys, was reported to have died with his Thai ‘adopted son’ by his side.
He had been in the Bangkok Pattaya hospital for the last three months, with complications from pancreatitis.
Frutin, 69, formerly of Ravelston Dykes, Edinburgh, left Scotland permanently for Thailand more than fifteen years ago, eventually selling Frutin Travel, one of Scotland’s largest independent travel agencies.
Originally born in Giffnock, the son of Glasgow cinema manager, in 1962 Frutin won the ‘European Cha-cha, Jive and Twist Championships’ with his dance partner June Miller, from Pollock.
Dancing with the June Miller again in front of the Queen Mother at Glasgow’s, Alhambra Theatre, with a high kick he accidentally hit his partner on the head and himself ended up in the orchestra pit.
Thus he went into the music business and managed Scottish groups including the ‘Hitchhikers’, and Frankie Miller and the Delljacks. His assistant at the time was, the now better known, John Reid, from Govan, who went on to become the manager of Elton John before a serious financial bust-up with the superstar.
Frutin’s move to Thailand, which he had been visiting since the Sixties, and where he had already bought property, may have been hastened by the raid on his house in Ravelston Dykes. He was later convicted and fined 500 pounds at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in June 1996 after admitting the offence.
However Frutin remained on a British police paedophile watch list (before the days of the Paedophile Register) and shortly after he relocated, the National Criminal Intelligence Service – NCIS - were notified by Interpol in Bangkok that Frutin’s address , The Penthouse, Jomtien Hills Resort, in Pattaya had been searched in May 1996, a month before his Edinburgh conviction, and that again a number of indecent images of young children had been found.

martin-frutin-ncis11

Pattaya police took no action on the case, and six months later in December 1996, NCIS met with and then made written representations to the Thai Embassy in London giving details of Frutin and six other known or suspected British paedophiles living and working in Thailand. Fruiton was No.4 on their list.

martin-frutin-ncis22
Frutin was suspected of having contributed to local police funds. From that moment on he began a new life and rose to become a prominent member of Pattaya society, hobnobbing with the owners of the local English language newspapers, also assisting as a police interpreter, during the arrest of other foreigners.
He became known as Somsak-Martin, and found that his background was also of little hindrance to him becoming a television host, performing with comedy teeth and wigs, and, despite objections from people who knew his background, also a prominent member of the local Masonic Lodge, Pattaya West Winds and the Pattaya-Jomtien Rotary Club.
For the last year, before he took ill, he had teamed up with a Danish businessmen called Neils ‘Istegade’ Colov, also a police volunteer. He joined Colov’s local television channel ‘Pattaya People TV’ where he presented his own show giving ‘tourists tips’.
He drove a red Rolls Royce and went on to build himself a gated mansion called ‘Marfru Palace’ which had four home cinemas and a swimming pool into which he could slide from his second floor bedroom.
A close friend in Pattaya said today: “Martin died close to midnight last night after a long illness. His Scottish nephew and adopted Thai family were at his side. No arrangements have been made yet but it is understood that he will be cremated at the Jewish cemetery in Bangkok.”
By ‘adopted family’, said the spokesman for Martin Frutin, ‘I mean his adopted Thai son and staff.”
Mr. Colov’s ‘Pattaya People’ newspaper reported today: “ Always larger than life, Somsak Martin could put a smile on everyone’s face with his unique style of wit that genuinely touched the hearts of many. A piece of Pattaya history has left us and all who knew Somsak Martin will greatly miss him.”- And history he now becomes to CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Unit of the Serious Organised Crime Squad, who have taken over the Thailand watch.

First two strikingly opposing views on the same man. The monster story in the SUN and the eulogy of an obituary in the Scotsman by the legendary Beryl Beattie.

The Scotsman (Obit- The Saint) The SUN (The perv)

Other links: Scotsman News Evening Times Daily Record The Herald, Glasgow

How the Sun said it

Here also are links explaining the ‘Magic Circle’ Royal Commission in Scotland which the SUN mentions and which featured two Scottish Pattaya names Gordon May and Martin Frutin. It’s a bit of a red herring to this story however.

The Commission A good summary of the affair

Could the Thai military have done a better deal at ‘Toys R Us’?

Published

Andrew Drummond

on January 24, 2010

in General News

. 13 Comments

This is a news blog only
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
toys_r_us_logo_svg Action by the British Government to ban the bogus ADE651 explosives detectors which have been sold to Iraq will put the spotlight on the Thai government over the GT- 200, also sold by a British company. The GT-200 has been credited with little more than attributing to the deaths of people in the Islamic separatist insurgency in South Thailand.
The scandal of the bogus British bomb detectors, which have apparently also led to countless deaths in Iraq, is likely to gather momentum. Police in Somerset have arrested and bailed the owner of ATSC, a former Merseyside policeman, with little knowledge of science, and a lot of knowledge on how to make a fast buck.(but perhaps not as much knowledge as the buyers) At the moment police are only investigating suspected fraud. That appears to be an open and shut case as the British government has declared officially that the ADE651s is unable to detect explosives.

Could the boss, 53-yr-old Jim McCormick, not be done on more serious charges? And when will these machines be removed from the streets of Bagdad? And indeed when will the GT-200s be removed from the southern provinces of Thailand?
In the case of the GT 200, the centre of the controversy in Thailand, are claims that the British government actually approved the GT- 200 before it was sold to Thailand, where it is now being blamed for deaths of innocent civilians and police.
Meanwhile the Asian Human Rights Association and the Working Group for Justice and Peace are claiming the Thai military and Interior Ministry who bought the weapons are resisting the banning of these machines, while innocent people continue to die, flying in the face of the old adage ‘If in doubt – leave out!’

Maybe,just maybe, all you have to do is take these cards apart and find the non-existent microchip. Will the card that detects humans work in my local bar?

Yesterday a Thai Prime Minister’s office spokesman told me that an enquiry was under way, but people had come back with conflicting reports about the GT-200. And there we have it. The wheels are grinding with a lot of creaks and squeals.
Angkana Neelapaijit, Chairman of the WGJP said yet again: “We have all sorts of these machines. The British GT 200 is the most notorious (Thai forces are also using the Sniffex Plus and the Interior Ministry has bought the Alpha 6 and given it to regional police in a fanfare of press conferences).They are falsely reporting explosives at the top of coconut trees. And they have failed to detect explosives in cars and motorbikes which have subsequently exploded and killed people.
“The Generals like the machines, but the soldiers who have to operate them hate them. They would be as well off using an Ouija board.”
She added: “ We believe Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is aware of the situation and hope he will now act quickly. The news from Britain is encouraging. The ADE651 is a different machine, but similar.”
Then the subject turned to ‘The Committee of the South’ , a ‘symposium’, and letters still to be written to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The GT-200 does not need a symposium. Apparently one person with a sharp knife or pair of scissors can solve its riddle.
The GT200 is made and marketed by Global Technical Co. Ltd, of Ashford, Kent or more precisely of Unit 7, The Glenmore Centre Moat Way, Sevington, Ashford, Kent TN24 0TL. Tel:+44 0 8701 694017.

On its website it claims it is ‘registered and supported’ by the British government and adds: ”Contrary to recent misinformation, our equipment trial reports and references provided by the Government are all original documents”. They also claim: “When the need arises, we are also able to call on the services of the Ministry of Defence to assist with various training courses”.
“This all despite the fact that last year last year Quenton Davies, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, told the company to remove a suggested MoD endorsement for the GT-200 from its website and literature.
A British Ministry of Defence spokesman said: “The GT 200 has not been considered to satisfy any of the capabilities we need”.
I spoke to Adam Thomas of UK Trade and Investment’s Defence and Security Organisation and he admitted that an EST (Export Support Team) had ‘looked at’ the GT200 in Chatham in 1999 but had not subjected it to a ‘formal test’. I detected a few moments of awkwardness in our conversation.
gt2002-thailand1 The report the EST team made had since been mislaid, he admitted, in a ministry shake up. But the company seems to have that report from the MoD anyway endorsing their product.
“The company cannot market this machine today, which we saw in 1999, saying the MoD has confirmed its capabilities”. Reading between the lines I sense that something happened in 1999 which the MoD may be regretting.
“If the Thai government asks us to test the GT200 now we will do so”, insisted Mr. Thomas.
The GT200 works on the same supposed principal as the ADE651 and also has no powered parts and allegedly works on the energy of its operator. Similar too is the Alpha 6, 799 units of which have been sold to the Thai Ministry of the Interior for UK11,000 pounds each.
The machines allegedly work on ‘molecular magnetic resonance’ and the wand points to the suspected substance, just like a water diviner. Yes the parts in these machines can’t cost much more than a fiver, once the moulds have been made.
The machines come with ‘substance detection cards’ which are ‘designed to tune into the frequency of the targeted explosives or substance’. (worth about 5p or 3 baht in the case of the ADE651)
But when Dr, Markus Khun of Cambridge University, examined one of the cards used in the British company ATSC’s ADE651, which was sold to Iraq at US$40,000 a piece, he told Newsnight: “There is nothing to programme in these cards. There is no memory. They are the cheapest form of electronics you can get to look like electronics. They are worth 2p or 3p.”…. quod erat demonstrandum.
If the GT-200 cards are the same, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, perhaps the Thai military could have spent US$15 at ‘Toys R Us’ and still have got a better deal.
Thai military are also using another ‘magic wand’ known as the ‘Sniffex’ , marketed from Germany, which was tested by the US Navy in 2005 and found that it could not detect 1000 lbs of explosives at 20 ft.

Has Thailand fallen for ‘all’ the scammers? Or is it in connivance?

Gary Bolton, CEO, of Global Technical Co. Ltd., of Ashford, refused to give any financial figures in fact he declined to comment in December other than saying in an email: “I am updating the website. ” The website has not been updated as of today, and Gary does not want to talk on the phone it seems. On his site he has a ‘get out’ clause stating the GT-200s are best used in conjunction with sniffer dogs. But I bet he did not tell the Thai authorities that they should buy a couple of thousand sniffer dogs as well.

American professional magician James Randi has claimed that GT200, ADE 165, Alpha 6, are all frauds and has offered $1m if he could be proved wrong.

But actually what is most alarming about the whole ‘magic wand’ saga is the ‘Who Cares?’ factor.

This story has been out there for quite some time. Just google ‘GT-200′, ‘Alpha 6′, ’Sniffex’ and five other brands and you will find it all.
In fact it’s really one of the biggest ‘military scandals’ around, because not many corrupt deals can be held directly responsible for the cause of deaths…as they can here.
The first story I believe was on ‘National Public Radio’ in the US in September last year. Then it was forgotten about until November when the New York Times half heartedly took up the case but did not pursue it. The NYT was followed later by the ‘Times’ in London, Yesterday an old colleague on the Daily Mail, Kim Sengupta now long since writing for the Independent in the UK gave the story close to its due worth, even though it was mainly a clip and paste (copied today in the Spectrum section of the Bangkok Post).
But it actually took the BBC’s Newsnight to actually go out and test the machines in question, something the newspapers should have done a long time ago.

The ‘Times’ so called ’investigation’ was less scientific but it had me chuckling. It was done I presume by the author, another former and amiable younger colleague from my Observer days, Simon de Bruxelles. The Times man put the machine on a desk, sent someone out to buy a load of fireworks (nah, probably had to go himself) and placed them in front of the machine and when the wand did not move, concluded the experiment! That’s what happens when you are reporting from the office and working to today’s newspaper budgets. Television runs away with the story. Well not quite. The newspaper thundered ‘Bomb detectors banned after Times expose!’ So thank you, NPR, Newsnight, ’The Times’ or rather New York Times, comic magician James Randi, and especially the author of www.sniffexquestions.blogspot.com , of whom the latter two have beaten all us journalists hands down!

Thailand’s problem at the moment is not so much its usual inability to get things done quickly, but more the reasons why? There are people who want nothing done.
Sure let the Thai scientists probe the GT 200, but give it to the British government to test too, or maybe even BBC Newsnight, who took it to a Cambridge University professor. Actually if some-one sends any of us a GT 200 ’substance detection card’ thanks to Dr. Markus, we could detect within a few minutes if it’s not going to work!

And if the GT-200s are proved to be equally duff, heads should of course roll. But that’s not the most important thing. The GT 200s should be taken off the streets now. Should they not?
But then again I guess the buzz has gotten around and no soldier will be staking his life on these machines in the future, rather they will adopt the Thai attitude and just salute and wave happily, do a thumbs up when the generals pass, and then put the GT-200s back in the lockers.

The Spongebob Squarepants model - only US$14.95 with working parts

Meanwhile of course once they have dealt with the GT-200, the military will have to deal with the Sniffex Pluses, and the Ministry of Interior and Police will have to deal with the Alpha 6’s. The only thing that can save the day for them is a typical Thai court ‘flat earth’ judgment…not possible if this gets too much publicity outside Thailand.

The Provincial Governors of Thailand have been holding press conferences boasting of the Alpha’s prowess in drugs detection. Minister of Interior Chavarat Charnvirakul is promoting the machines in his ‘Clean and Seal for the Nation’ campaign to eradicate drugs ( I thought they could have fitted in a rhyming ’heal’ into their slogan as well). Anyway the Interior Ministry got their Alphas at a snip - Bt550,000 each while the Ministry of Defence bought the GT-200 for Bt 770,000 each.

If one of these machines points at me and policeman says ‘Se-top!, my hands are going to go up like a flash, because no doubt I will have been identifed as a ‘crack’ or ‘ice’ hood, and Thai police have yet to be disarmed and they can shoot quicker than they can, well, read an Alpha 6…well at least thats what the relatives of victims of a previous PM’s drug war will say.

Finally a message for those operating ‘magic wands’: ‘It’ll be your fault!’. In every known case where these machines have been blamed for deaths and injuries, the manufacturers and military put it down to to ‘operator failure’.

PS: For those who did not see the BBC Newsnight test on the ADE651 card here is the link

Edited: Additional info Grant Peck/AP

British ‘magic wands’ accused of killing people in South Thailand

Published

Andrew Drummond

on January 4, 2010

in General News

. 24 Comments

‘These British machines are falsely finding explosives in coconut trees. But people die when they give false negative reports ’.

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Monday January 4th 2010
Pictures: Andrew Chant/WGPP

The Prime Minister of Thailand will this week be asked to order the withdrawal of British explosives detection equipment known as ‘magic wands’ for testing amid claims they are killing members of the country’s security forces.

The move follows a similar controversy in Iraq two months ago where some 1,500 ‘magic wands’ sold under the name ADE165 by the British company ATSC were ridiculed for their lack of capability by the US military.

coconut-tree Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva will be asked to act on claims that similar machines sold under the name GT-200 have given totally false readings which have led to several deaths in Islamic southern Thailand, the scene of separatist terrorism.

“They are falsely identifiying explosives at the top of coconut trees, but not finding when the bombs are real and people are dying,” said Angkana Neelapaijit, a member of the parliamentary ad hoc ‘Committee on the south’ which will make the demand formal for the machines to be withdrawn and tested.
She added: “Our scientific advisors have compared the GT-200 to bomb detecting with a Ouija board.”
Already the Working Group for Justice and Peace and the Asian Human Rights Commission have called for the detectors to be withdrawn until they have been scientifically tested in Thailand.

Thai military with GT-200

The latest controversy involves the Ashford, Kent, based company ‘Global Technical Co.Ltd.,’ which last year was asked by Quenton Davies, Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, to remove a suggested MoD endorsement for the GT-200 from its website.

The Thai Interior Ministry is also promoting the ‘Alpha 6′ detector and supplying some 800 to police nationwide at 555,000 baht each -11,000 pounds sterling to detect drugs.
But ‘magic wands’ known as GT-200 used by the Thai army and sold without cabinet approval under ‘a secret military deal’, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission, are the ones of main concern, because they are supposed to detect explosives.
The units allegedly work on the principal of ‘magnetic molecular resonance’ or ‘nano ionic resonance’ and or ‘dia/para magnetism’.
The US Justice Ministry, which issued a warning about similar machines, calls it ‘Molecular Frequency Distribution’ and states in a report: “None of these attempts to create devices that can detect specific materials such as explosives (or any materials for that matter) have been proven successful in controlled double-blind scientific tests”.
A ‘magic wand’ tested by the US Navy called the Sniffex, could not detect 1000 lbs of explosives at 20 feet.
In theory the gadgets works like water diviners. They all come with a wand which is supposed to point out whatever the operator is seeking. If it’s TNT or C4 explosives the operator is looking for, the GT200, will supposedly point him to it. The units have no battery power but work off the power of the operator.
Slip other cards special cards into to the machines and they will detect cocaine, heroin, ice, and the drug of your choice – at 5oo metres, claim the distributors.
Angkana Neelapaijit, also Chairman of Thailand’s Working Group for Justice and Peace said: “They have been compared to using ouija boards. In all cases when the machines fail the operators are blamed. The generals say the machines are good. The people who have to use the machines, the soldiers, say the opposite. They don’t work and can be deadly!
“ I have tried speaking to the Prime Minister and British Ambassador to Thailand. The Prime Minister at the moment supports his Generals’ view. The Ambassador Quinton Quayle did not want to talk.”

Aftermath of undetected bomb in Pattani

The WGJP blames the GT-200 for several deaths. In their report they claim that on October 6th last year near the Merlin Hotel, in Sungai-Golok and October 19th at Pimonchai Market in Yala, bombs went off causing death and several injuries in a car and motorcycle, just a few minutes after the vehicles had been checked with the GT-200 ‘magic wands’.
They also claim that on November 7th three Border Patrol officers were killed when a bomb exploded as they were investigating a suspicious object in Pattani. Again the GT-200 showed negative results.
And again in Pattani, South Thailand, when a bomb was hidden among the dead bodies of a murdered couple in Kok Pho district, officials used the GT200 to check the bodies . The equipment suggested nothing. When officials lifted the bodies up, the bomb went off, claim the WGJP
The WGJP pointed out: “The reading device is ambiguous and subjective. There is no clear indicator. It is vague enough to excuse the authorities’ ineffectiveness. If a false negative turns out they can just blame the operator”.
The MoD says the machines are not used by British forces and do not confirm to British forces requirements.
A spokesman said Global Technical had brought a machine to them for evaluation in 1999. But the machine was not subject to proper MOD testing. “The company cannot market the machine today stating the MoD has confirmed its capabilities.”
Gary Bolton of Global Technical Ltd said the company would be updating its website later this month. Technical information provided by Global and Technical says its performance has been backed by the British Army. However the machine cannot pinpoint explosive, rather narrow them down to an area of four cubic metres.

The full range of the GT-200's bomb detecting capabilities as shown in Thailand. Not everybody believes the claims.

Brits in Thai island ‘drug rape’ pin their hopes on Scotland Yard

Published

Andrew Drummond

on December 4, 2009

in General News

. 9 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Koh Chang, Thailand

Link Evening Standard The SUN

White Sands Beach, Koh Chang

Scotland Yard confirmed today that they have conducted tests on a British couple who say they were subjected to a horrifying gang rape in Thailand and planned to co-operate with a Thai police investigation into the incident.

The couple who fled back to London feeling that Thai police were botching their own investigation have given video statements and undergone extensive forensic analysis , at the hands of a Metropolitan police ‘Sapphire Project’ team.
the-haven They are now receiving counseling at ‘The Haven’, the Met Police, Barts and NHS Sexual Offences Referral unit at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel – after a seemingly horrific ‘Clockwork Orange’ style attack on them on the Thai holiday Island of Koh Chang last month.
Known by the names ‘Richard’ and ‘Susan’ they claimed the rapes happened when they must have invited other fellow tourists, a girl and two men, they had met at a beach bar to their holiday bungalow to continue to drink and listen to music in their room. The couple cannot actually recall inviting anyone back and say it would have been out of character.

Susan, 31, said she recalled that the English girl requested she put on the song ‘It’s getting hot in here, so please take off your clothes’, by Nelly. But she could not work her laptop anymore and must have passed out in the process of looking for it.
Both lost consciousness and Richard, 42, a company director, said he recalled briefly waking as he was being forcibly held against a bungalow window and made to watch his girlfriend, being raped by two men.
The couple claimed they slept for two days afterwards, occasionally waking up to splitting headaches. When the headaches wore off both felt considerable discomfort both in their sexual organs and anal passages. “I had no strength or ability to resist or fight”.
When they went to the local hospital on Koh Chang, a doctor called police on their behalf. He said that the couple had symptoms of having been administered the drug Dormicon.
Dormicon is a generic of midzolam which has been used in the United States to give to prisoners on death row to relax them shortly before execution. It’s also used as a pre-op drug in hospitals. It can affect people in different ways.
At Koh Chang’s International Clinic Dr. Roongtham Charentantanakul who counseled them said: “We have had other cases like this, but this is the first case that I have heard of where foreigners have given such a drug to other foreigners.
“These cases are very difficult to deal with. These drugs have two main affects, one is hypnotic and the other is retrograde amnesia. That means the victims can fully co-operate with their attackers and then afterwards forget all about it or only have partial recall. In one case, he said, a woman was actually injected on a dance floor. She felt it something in her upper arm when it happened and looked around, but as she was a little bit drunk, she just carried on dancing.
“There are unscrupulous drug store owners in Thailand who will sell these sorts of drugs over the counter.
“But unless the couple are treated and tested immediately traces of the drugs disappear from the body within 12 hours. In that case all the evidence police will get is that they actually co-operated.”
Susan however said today: “We have been told by Scotland Yard forensics officers that it is possible that they can find a trace of the drug, and of sexual assault. We have both been given full tests and those have shown I have been assaulted, although because of the time frame some things have healed. We will have to wait for further tests of hair roots as they try and identify the drug’s make-up.”
Richard and Susan had just spent 11 months on a round the world and decided to spend the last week of a ‘truly wonderful experience’ chilling out on the beach at Koh Chang, an island just off Cambodia.

The popular Sabay Bar on Koh Chang

On November 18th they said they went to the popular ‘Sabay” beach and music bar on Haad Sai Kao (White Sands Beach) Koh Chang to watch a fire show and dance and listen to the band.
There they met three Frenchman and an English girl and spent much of the evening in their company.
When the bar closed the couple, the English girl, and two of the Frenchmen, went back to their bungalow at White Sands Garden situated up a hill in a rubber plantation. They were later joined by the third Frenchman. Shortly afterwards both Richard and Susan say they lost consciousness.

The couple's bungalow room at White Sands Garden

Said Richard: “The police acted as if they did not believe our story. They did not take any DNA evidence from the room, but it was clear the bed cover was heavily stained and there were marks on the window where my face had been pressed against it.
“I woke up in a foetal position outside our bungalow room. These men were laughing as they left. They boasted about what they had done. I believe the English girl was used to give us a feeling of re-assurance, and in fact we were targeted from the point we met this group.
“We left Thailand because we were unhappy with the investigation and we took the bedclothes with us. But it has always been my intention to go back and I have told the Embassy to tell the police I will. What these people did was barbaric.”
From their own enquiries the couple has established details of two of the four people and have information about the third man. One of them has since removed his ‘Facebook’ page, a second is the son of a wealthy businessman and is known for his martial arts. They believe they have found an internet photograph of the third man.
At the island’s police station Inspector Sibayot Chittiyakul said: “ We are taking this seriously, but we need witnesses. The safety of tourists is important to us. But the couple have to understand we have procedures to follow and the first thing is to get their full statements.
“We have names and identities and are monitoring the case, one of whom has a Thai address. But we cannot make an arrest until the man completes his statement.”
The Thai owner of the White Sands Garden who asked not to be named said however the group all arrived back in the early hours on November 19th and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
“The English man later apologized in the morning for all the noise. Foreigners like to party. That is all it seemed to us.”
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “We can confirm that an SCD2 Team (Special Crime Directorate 2 - Sapphire Project) from Kingston have been assisting the Thai authorities in reference to allegations of rape.” The spokesman added as it was a Thai investigation the matter would have to go through the appropriate channels.

Rape scene from 'A Clockwork Orange'

The 70s cult film ‘A Clockwork Orange’ directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Malcolm McDowell is best remembered for a scene in which a gang of delinquents known as the ‘Droogs’ who get high on senseless violence and rape a woman in front of her author husband. The anti-hero, Alex, is later treated with drugs by the state so that he suffers extreme nausea at the very thought of violence and sexual activity and is released into society where he becomes a victim.

The relevant FCO Travel Advisory

“There have been a number of incidents where tourists have had their drinks drugged (in both tourist areas and red light districts). You should be careful about taking drinks from strangers and be wary at clubs and parties, particularly in the Koh Samui area and at the Full Moon party on Phangan Island where incidences of date rape have been reported. A number of British nationals have suffered severe psychiatric problems because of drug use, in a small number of cases resulting in suicide.

We receive occasional reports of tourists who have been robbed after bringing visitors to their hotel rooms. In some cases their drinks were drugged. Ensure that your passport and wallet are secure at all times.

We continue to receive reports of sexual offences committed against foreign women and men. In 2007 our Consular staff were aware of a number of British nationals who were the victim of a serious sexual offence in Thailand. In January 2006, three British women were raped in separate incidents in Thailand, including one who was murdered.

Female travellers in particular should maintain a high state of personal awareness during their time in Thailand. Be aware that alcohol and drugs can lead to you being less alert, less in control and less aware of your environment. If you are going to drink, know your limit. Remember that drinks served in bars overseas are often stronger than those in the UK. Reports of sexual assaults against women have become particularly prevalent in the Koh Samui archipelago. Women travellers are, therefore, advised to take particular care over their personal security whilst staying in this area. For more guidance about this see our Rape and sexual assault overseas page.

You should report any incidents of crime to the Thai police before leaving the country.

Fisherman jailed for murder of British yachtsman - Thailand

Published

Andrew Drummond

on November 29, 2009

in General News

. 0 Comments

Link to Sky News today Sunday Mirror

Background Links: The Times, Daily Mail
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Saturday November 28 2009

Pictures: Andrew Chant

lindarobertsonmalcolmboat3

Two young Burmese fishermen have been sentenced to 25 years in prison each for the murder of 64-yr-old British yachtsman Malcolm Robertson off the coast of Thailand earlier this year.

At statement from the British Embassy in Bangkok today confirmed that Eksian Warapon, 19, and a shipmate known only as Aow, 18, were sentenced at Satun Provincial court earlier in the week.

A third Burmese, a juvenile known as Ko, aged 17, was sentenced to be held in custody until he reaches the age of 24, said Daniel Painter, Second Secretary at the British Embassy in Bangkok.

The two elder Burmese were initially sentenced to fifty years but their sentence was cut in half because they pleaded guilty and were remorseful.

The Burmese had been stranded on a small island off Koh Adang in the Tarutao National Marine Park off the south coast of Thailand in March this year after jumping ship from a Thai fishing boat when Malcolm Robertson sailed in and moored offshore.

They were initially referred to as pirates but later it became clear that the young Burmese had been sold as slave labour to a Thai fishing fleet and had been in and out of immigration detention centres in Thailand.

Before the attack they had spent eight months and sea without being allowed ashore with their Thai colleagues. They swum to the island and hopefully freedom.

But the island had no food and very little water.

Aow and Eksian (right)

Eksian Warapon, 19, told the court that all three were starving when the Robertson’s yacht ‘Mr. Bean’ anchored offshore,

“The boat was our only way of escape. We did not want to harm anyone but the foreigner put up a fight,” said Eksian..

They had swum to the boat and climbed aboard but were surprised by Mr.Robertson who started shouting at them.

Eksian admitted to being the person who bludgeoned Mr. Robertson with a hammer he had found on the 44 ft yacht, after the others tied up Linda Robertson, 57, naked in a cabin.

Later Mrs. Robertson, who with her husband owned a chain of cafes in Sussex, made a courageous escape by freeing herself, weighing anchor and sailing away while her captors were mucking trying to get Mr. Bean’s ‘troublesome’ dingy to work.

The three men had agreed to leave the boat and had packed a dinghy with stolen property.including computers, mobile phones,

She said afterwards “But they had only got thirty yards when the engine began to splutter as I knew it would,

Linda Robertson in 'Mr. Bean's' dinghy

“They turned and started coming back, so I rushed to pull up the anchor, which was quite easy, because they had only let out thirty yards. Then I put the boat into full throttle and headed out to see leaving them behind.

“Then I saw them head to shore and I knew my ordeal was over and I was safe. I cannot believe I survived.”
Linda Robertson said today at her home St. Leonards, Sussex: “The juvenile showed a lot of remorse so I think his light sentence is justified. I am happy with the verdict. I am relieved they did not get the death penalty. Twenty five years in a Thai jail will be hell on earth. I would not wish any more on them. It’s another step towards getting over Malcolm’s death”..

A formal inquest will be held Sussex next month.

British couple subjected to vile ‘Clockwork Orange’ style sex attack - Thailand

Published

Andrew Drummond

on November 28, 2009

in General News

. 4 Comments

Link to DailyMail Link New York Daily News
By Andrew Drummond
Last updated at 12:38 AM on 28th November 2009
A British couple have become victims of a horrendous Clockwork Orange-style sex attack ordeal while on holiday in Thailand.

The professional couple had chosen the Thai holiday island of Koh Chang to round off a memorable one-year sabbatical from their jobs touring the world.

But last night, the couple, one a government employee, the other a businessman, fled Thailand after they were subjected to a night of terror in which they say they were drugged and raped by a gang they suspect preys on foreign tourists.

The couple did not wish to be fully identified. But the man, Richard, 42, remembers being forced to watch as his wife Susan, 31, was sexually assaulted by two men.

For the next two days, the couple lay almost motionless in their holiday bungalow as gradually their memories returned.

Koh Chang

They called the police, but when nobody went to see them, they went to a local hospital to be examined by doctors.

Richard said: ‘The doctor there examined us and listened to our story and seemed to know what had happened straight away.

‘He told us we were showing all the symptoms of having been given the drug Dormicum – a date rape drug. I do not know the drug, but it seemed of no surprise to the doctor.

‘When I asked the doctor if he could check for any traces, he said no, it would have been cleared out of our systems by now.’

They contacted the police, who they say showed scant interest and did little in the way of investigation.

They also contacted British authorities, but say the British representative on the island who came to see them was not interested either.

Last night, they were on their way back to Britain, with little prospect of anything being done. But they wanted to make others aware of the dangers of making contact with strangers in such places.

Richard said: ‘I know many people are not going to believe this and say that we must have been taking drink or drugs through choice. But nothing could be further from the truth.’

Susan said the night of their ordeal began with a pleasant drink at a beach bar, where they met an Englishwoman and some Frenchmen. They stayed in their company at the bar, although at one point she and her partner left for a short time, returning to join them. It was at that point, she believes, the drinks were spiked.

‘

Clockwork Orange

Things became a bit hazy. And then one of the Frenchmen lifted me up and carried me out of the bar. In a normal situation I would not let anybody do such a thing. It was bizarre.’

The group all went back to the couple’s bungalow.

‘Then things got hazier and hazier,’ she said.

‘Everything was a blur.’

Richard said he could vaguely remember being outside the bungalow and watching through a window as Susan was assaulted by the men.

‘The next thing it was light and I was lying on the balcony in a foetal position and the Frenchman were standing above me looking down and laughing and saying what they had done to Susan.’

He realised that at some point he too had been sexually attacked.

The couple said that when they were able to complain to police ‘they did not seem very interested’.

After contacting the British Embassy they were visited by a consular representative, a local Thai woman, who told them the police would not take the case seriously.

‘We have been contacted by the police who have asked us what we are going to do,’ said Richard.

‘We do not want to let the matter drop. But we must get home to our families.’

A Thai Police spokesman strenuously denied they were not taking the couple’s complaint seriously and said an investigation was under way.

A British Embassy spokesman said: ‘The consular team in Bangkok have been in touch throughout to give help and advice to the British nationals involved and are urgently following up with the Thai police.

‘A member of staff from our consulate in Pattaya visited the British nationals within the first day of the embassy being contacted to provide face-to-face assistance. Our consular staff in London have also been in touch with the family members in the UK.’

Seeing me, seeing you! Foreign film crews in Pattaya

Published

Andrew Drummond

on November 19, 2009

in General News

. 6 Comments

This is a blog only

The inevitable has happened. Well I guess it had to sometime.

The resort of Pattaya has always been an attraction to foreign film crews. They have to be sneaky. It’s a dangerous occupation down there, and as I think I mentioned before, pointing a camera in a wrong direction, particularly at a foreigner in a sex bar, can result in a severe injury with a telescopic lens.
But that does not stop producers insisting that, thirty seconds of scantily clad, nay even naked, girls in a go-go bar, can’t do any harm to the ratings.
To establish Thailand in their films, producer-directors used to use The Temple of the Emerald Bhudda. Now it seems a bit of totty helps too.
They are everywhere and they have now discovered that it is best not to look like a camera crew but to look like tourists.
Some producers can carry it off. Some cannot. What has happened now is that one foreign television crew filming in Pattaya has filmed another film crew who have been filming in a go-go bar.
Not intentionally of course. They did not know the young couple in question was a film crew.

Gavin Hill and Dean Palmer of Vera Productions in happier days

Stand up Gavin Hill, producer of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’. I mention this now because the man you caught on camera was one ’Olly Lambert’ producer and the director of a ‘Cutting Edge’ programme on British television last night ‘Confessions of a Traffic Warden” . Now there’s a whipping boy if ever there was one, the traffic warden, that is, not Olly.

Olly and his ‘girlfriend’ were caught secretly filming in a place called ’BabyDolls A-Go-Go’ in’ Pattaya by the owner who confiscated their gear, which must have been above the value of a US$300 Panasonic.
Olly was outraged but admitted: ”Well, I might have accidentally got shots of girls with their knickers off’.
When the charming, slightly sensitive and definitely indiscreet Howard Miller (He just can’t stop defending himself on the internet) Group Leader of Pattaya Tourist Police Assistants was called in to mediate, Olly Lambert came up with a strange tale.
He was looking for a girl, he said. A friend of his had recently died in the UK and had left something for her in his will.
“What - and film her naked first? Was he looking for a birthmark or special tattoo?

We can show you to the door

Of course, Olly may have a tale to tell. From what I read on the internet Olly seems to have some awards, but awards in TV are perhaps as numerous as available girls in Pattaya.
He had to wait a day for his camera and was an unhappy bunny: “This place (Pattaya) is advertised all over the world as a sex tourist haven, but it is not okay to show it!” he complained indignantly.

I think Olly may have betrayed his bottom line there if you pardon the pun.

But he has a point I suppose. Pretty much all of the go-go bars in Pattaya have their own websites promoting their girls etc. And if you really don’t care, you can even have a birthday party there and get a picture taken looking exceedingly silly. There are a few up on the Babydolls website

We have a jacuzzi too!

These pictures will inevitably go up on the internet and it won’t be the first time a ‘wife left behind’ has found out what her her husband has been up to.

Now, before I sound totally hyprocritical, some years ago I did the Thai investigation for a programme called, rather unoriginally, ‘The Sex Slave Trade’ which was networked in the UK, and sold on to Australia and New Zealand.

Actually the victims of this trade were not from Soi Cowboy or Soi Thaniya. But the producer/director insisted on secret filming in these area from a blacked out van.

This was not without its comic moments. First of all in Soi Thaniya the ‘reporter’ was instructed to walk slowly down the street casually talking to the girls outside each establishment.

sex-slave-trade-c4 He could not speak Thai. Few of the girls spoke English, but many spoke Japanese. And not one single one of them would give him a passing glance, let alone open up a dialogue or let him into her bar.

Then came Soi Cowboy. This meant actually driving up the Soi again as all the food vendors had to move their stalls to make away.

We were going far slowler than walking speed, which attracted the attention of the Soi Bobby who kept banging on the sides of the van (above). We of course refused to open the doors and sped off into Soi 23. I made my escape and managed to get back to have a late drink at ‘Moonshine’ with amiable cricketer Aussie Steve. Like Gavin, who parted company with Dean Palmer, the Executive producer of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ I also complained about ‘The Sex Slave Trade’.

Its all here somewhere.

Finally if you want to see Olly defending himself, it’s all here on Episode 5 Part 1 of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’

Gratuitous pictures: Babydoll.com

British woman ‘raped’ in Thai beach resort

Published

Andrew Drummond

on November 17, 2009

in General News

. 9 Comments

British woman raped in Thailand – two men held

Link to Daily Mail

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Monday November 17

A British tourist claimed last night that she was dragged off the street by two men in front of Thai police and then taken to a hotel where she was raped and then robbed of her belongings.

The woman, aged 25, said the attack happened early Saturday morning in the Thai resort of Pattaya, twenty metres from a police box. The attack happened after she had been separated from friends. The abduction allegedly took place in Pattaya’s Walking Street.

She said she was unable to resist the two men who after raping her then left taking her Natwest bank and credit cards and 60 pounds in cash and a bracelet worth 100 pounds. Nobody came to her help.

The attack was kept secret at her request but last night police in Pattaya charged two men with rape and theft. They were named as Krajon Senkam, 29, and Surasak Kovekasan, 20, who were described as local ‘maeng da’ – a Thai expression , literally translating as cockroaches, describing men who live off the earnings of local prostitutes.

Police Colonel Wanlop Kangtharatit said the men were arrested quickly as they were known in the area.

Kidnapped priest wore down his captors with good humour

Published

Andrew Drummond

on November 15, 2009

in General News

. 0 Comments

“When you go we will be free at last too!” they said after month long ordeal with troublesome priest

From Andrew Drummond, Manila, Friday, 13 2009

Resilient Irish priest Father Michael Sinnott wore down his captors with words of kindness and prayers.

After ten days they gave up their political speeches threw their hands in the air and said: “If you go now we will be free too. We want you to go!”
Instead of a fit young captive who needed little attention they had found themselves nurses to a genial old man who in other circumstances could have been their friend, he said.

Faced with the priest’s refusal to believe in their cause and nonplussed with his gentle manner, they ended up being his caretakers, and praying themselves that no harm would come to the 79-year-old Irish Columban missionary.
The kidnap by a break-away faction of the Moro Islamic National Front in the Southern Philippines ended with his armed guards almost begging the authorities to take Father Sinnott back.
“ They had enough. They all wanted to go home too,” Father Sinnott told the Irish Daily Mail today (Friday) in Manila, “ I guess they had their own families to look after.
“We had started off at loggerheads. They insisted they were freedom fighters and they were original indigenous people, known as Lumad, from Mindanao. They wanted their land back and a state with a constitution which would be the Koran.
“Well, I was having nothing of that blarney. I told them that most of Mindanao was now Christian. And in any case the original indigenous people were neither Christian nor Muslim. Actually Christianity came 200 years to the Philippines after Islam but the majority are now Catholics.
“Really what they really wanted was $2million in ransom. But it did not take them long to give up on that idea.
“For the first week ago there was little love lost. They prayed their way and I prayed mine, staring up to the heavens flat on my back in a hammock as three times a day they faced Mecca. But by the second week we were all praying for each other.
“Forget about the politics, or their crime. These were normal people with families with the same aspirations as anyone. We got to know each other quite well. They were very kind. Beside they may have had trouble on their hands. I was not troublesome. But I took a lot of looking after and they were worried for my health.
“In the end I think they accepted that kidnap was forbidden by the Koran, and they were told that I believe by leaders of the real MILF. But they argued that they had no other way to get funding.
Father Mick’s captivity came to an end on Thursday after representatives of the real Moro Islamic National Front ordered the breakaway group, to hand him back to the authorities. No ransom was paid, but a small gratuity is believed to have given to the small group, as a face saving gesture. It is not thought to have been over $5000.
It was on October 11th Father Sinnott was taking his daily exercise shirtless outside the Columban Mission in Pagadian, southern Mindanao after supper when he heard the sound of rushing feet behind him on the driveway. He was grabbed by three men and a fourth came to face him with a pistol.
The next minute he was bundled into a pick-up truck, known locally as a multi-cab, covered with a blanket and taken down to the shore.
“I know people associate the Southern Philippines with kidnap but I never thought in a million years anyone would come to the Columban Mission and actually do it.
“They put me in a boat and covered me up. Then took me to another and bigger and faster boat and transferred me and put me on the floor of the boat. They handled me roughly and blindfolded me but I could still see which side of the boats the lights were on, so I knew in which general direction we were going and it certainly was not in the direction they were telling me.
“When we put ashore again I had to walk with them for about one and a half hours. It was through stagnant muddy swamp water and we were guided by torchlight.
“When we stopped it was about 6am and getting light. The number of guards had risen now from four to about 8 or 9. I was stuck on a dry mound in the swamp about one metre by three metres.
“Hammocks were put up and I clambered in mine. If I got out one side I would end up in the swamp. On my other side was the guards’ hammock.
“We did not see eye to eye for the first few days. But I took things as they came. They argued about their cause, giving political sermons every day. I was not having any of it but I guess I was good natured about it and they were nice people and eventually stopped and they treated me oh so very well.
“I certainly got the feeling they thought they had got the wrong guy. I’m 79 years old and need taking care of and that’s just what they did.
sinnott-irish-daily-mail “Every little thing from helping me fasten my shoes to getting in and out of the hammock, and even moving in my hammock into a comfortable position, which is not so easy for an old man.
“They sent out men to get the provisions and brought for me things like bread and sandwich spread, which together with some of their rice was my daily intake. They also brought mosquito spray which made the swamp tolerable. Who has ever heard of terrorists supplying mosquito spray and sandwich spread?
Father Sinnott had last year been in hospital for a heart operation.
“When I told them I did not have my heart medicine, the medicine arrived at the end of ten days, but I had no trouble in the meantime.
“I even saw their shopping bags which showed they had done their shopping in Cotabato, so I had roughly guessed my location correctly.
“By the end of ten days they had clearly had enough themselves. There was myself and two guards on one mound. Then on another mound a few yards away were another two guards, and a third dry mound was the cooking mound with another three guards.
“The only exercise I got was to jump up and down beside my hammock. The boredom was the worst thing; ten days stuck in a hammock or standing or sitting on a very small dry piece of land.
“I knew my guards by their first names, or nicknames. There was Keekaye, who had five sons and two daughters. But he wished they he had seven sons so they could all be freedom fighters.
“There was Norking, who was just eighteen. He said he would rather fight by the power of a ballpoint pen than a gun. Then there were others called Alex, Jango, Max and Terry.
“In the end they were all on my side and wishing I would go soon. Then on the 11th day I was moved.
“I thought I was moving to freedom. Because by now I was pretty sure I was going to be released.
“At no time apart from at the very beginning when I was roughly treated did I think any harm would come to me. I believe in the power of prayer. I could feel the power of the prayers from people in the Philippines and from back home at the Church of the Assumption in Clonard (Wexford).
“And of course, I was praying myself but I did not find prayers easy.
“When they moved me they took me on another boat ride about eight hours. Again I was in the bottom of the boat. This time they marched me into a jungle area, but I know it was not far from civilization, because often during the day we could hear the sound of people in the jungle cutting away.
“One one occasion they got close, so we had to move further away. But in the jungle life was better. I had a hammock and a tarpaulin, which would protect me from the rain, providing the rain came straight down, which it does not always do.
“They also cut me out a piece of the jungle as an exercise yard. Even before the beginning of November I was sure I was going to be released. But there were a couple of false alarms. I thought I was going to be released on November 4th but that attempt was abandoned because I gather the sea was too rough.

Welcome home shrine for Father Mick in Manila

“I just had to continue the same routine until my release. Up at dawn. Breakfast followed by toiletries. Back to the hammock for prayers. Then onto a wooden log bench, maybe to chat with my captors, as I knew the local dialect. Then in the afternoon back to the hammock to do a few decades of the Rosary. There was nothing to read. No radio. We all just wanted to go home.
“When eventually my release came after being taken eight hours by boat to Zamboanga I was surprised at all the attention I received. I knew lots of people were involved in the negotiations for my release, my fellow fathers, the Philippines Red Cross, the Government and Army, and the MILF themselves, not forgetting all those who prayed from me. I want to thank them all. God Bless you.”
Father Michael, or Father Mick, as he is known, received a special welcome back home in the Philippines capital of Manila.

Father Mick (right) with Father Pat O'Donaghue in Manila

At the Columban Centre in Ermita, Father Pat Don O’Donaghue, who flew to the southern Philippines to assist in the rescue said: “ Father Mick is dearly loved here. He looks after over 60 disabled kids in the mission in Pagadian and is a leading member of the local inter-faith forum.
So while he was away not only were prayers being said in the Catholic and Christian churches worldwide, but prayers were being said in the local Catholic churches, the local Mosque and prayers were being said by the local tribal people.
“He is a remarkable and well-loved man. He was my tutor in fact he has been the tutor to most of the Columban fathers in the Philippines”.

Andrew Drummond

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