Andrew Drummond

Canadians protest ‘murder’ by Thai police - July 19 08

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on July 19, 2008

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From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Saturday July 19 2008

The family and friends of a young backpacker who was gunned down by a policeman in Thailand have begun a nationwide poster campaign in Canada to demand the killer be brought to court.

Leading the ‘search for justice’ is Ernest Del Pinto, from Calgary, Alberta, whose 25-yr-old son was shot dead by a Thai policeman in the northern Thai village of Pai.

City buses in Calgary are now carrying the posters ‘Canadian Murdered in Thailand. When will be justice be served?’. The campaigners, who are also getting together a petition, plan to take the campaign to buses in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.

The move follows lack of action in Thailand and the exposure by the Thai National Human Rights Commission of a cover up into the ‘murder’ in January this year.

Mr. Del Pinto (below third from left) is also asking Canadians to stay away from Thailand until the matter is resolved.

Leo Del Pinto was shot in the chest and in the head by a Thai policeman in January. A Canadian friend Carly Reisig, 24, from Chilliwack, B.C. was also shot in the chest but she survived.

After the shootings local police chief Colonel Sombat Panya claimed that Canadians had made an unprovoked attack on Police Sergeant Uthai Dechawiwat in the northern village of Pai after he broke up a fight between them.

Uthai, he claimed, shot in self defence as he fell to the ground. His automatic had a hair trigger.
However witnesses and forensic evidence revealed by Thailand’s leading pathologist Dr. Pornthip Rojanasund contradicted the police story.

It was Leo who as he fell to the ground. He was shot in the chest and then a second shot was aimed straight at his head as he fell.

Witnesses under protection also said that Sergeant Uthai pistol whipped Ms. Reisig before shooting her under her left breast.

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej ordered the Thai Department of Special Investigation to take up the case four months ago. Thai police are notoriously inefficient in investigating their own officers.

No policeman has yet to be prosecuted in connection with a government drugs war in Thailand which began in 2003 during which over 2,000 were killed, killed mainly, say human rights organisations, by policemen.

Family spokesman Ross Fortune said: “The officer concerned is still free and walking the streets and drinking in the bars. Is it not right for the family to feel upset?”

In Bangkok Kamol Kamultrakul of the Thai Human Rights Commission said: “We will be in touch with the DSI to discuss progress.”

Four years ago British backpackers Vanessa Arscott, 23, and Adam Lloyd, 24, from Devon, were gunned down by a Thai policeman in Kanchanaburi on the River Kwai.

Local witnesses to the shooting were scared to give evidence against the policeman, Sergeant Somchai Wisetsingh. But he was convicted and jailed primarily on forensic evidence.

Up against the Komodo Dragons and Jeremy Clarkson - Blog

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Andrew Drummond

on June 16, 2008

in General News

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So here I am face to face with a Komodo Dragon on Rinca Island in Indonesia where three unfortunate Brits along with a Swede and a Frenchman were washed up after their dive boat went off without them.

But no need to worry. The park rangers gave me this white stick when I arrived on the island and said just catch them by the neck if they approach.

Well I guess the neck on this one seems a bit small for my stick, but fear not, these guys only eat carrion according to our very own Jeremy Clarkson writing in the Sunday Times.

There’s a blessing.

What he forgot to say is that the carrion they eat is normally only carrion because they’ve bloody well killed it in the first place. Water buffalo, deer and even humans can die a slow lingering death from the bacteria in the saliva of these foul mouth monsters. And I’m sure deer run run faster than I can.

Komodos, when enthusiastic, can run at 20 m.p.h. I think I can do that but not for the full hour.

Here’s what to do if you get bitten by a Komodo on Rinca Island. Get on a boat quick. Its a two and a half hour journey to Labuan Bajo on Flores home of Indonesia’s Hobbit people. Wait for a plane and hope its not one of those days they dont fly, or at least if they do fly, hope you can bump someone from the flight. This will be difficult because by now you’ll be sweating, your face will be contorted, and you’ll be looking like a potential terrorist and your attempts to say ‘I’ve been bitten by a Komodo’ may be misinterpreted. If you succeed, get yourself to a hospital in Bali a one and a half hour trip over the Indonesian archipelago..

The only cure for a Komodo bite is a Fokker.

But wait a minute. I’m not the only fearless hack here. The Daily Mail have apparently given my Sydney based colleague Richard Shears a knighthood for tackling the same Dragon. Notice that stick he’s carrying. ITS MINE!. (more here) . Apparently the Komodo is called ‘Beth’. Its amazing what the Daily Mail can pull out of the bag.

(Pictures of fearless white stick courtesy of Andrew Chant, c/o i.c.u. Bali international hospital)

Anyway back to Jeremy.

Jeremy’s column in the Sunday Times headed ‘Swim with sharks - Its easy money’ was a frivilous knocking piece on the story of two sets of divers who were left recently in ‘Open Water’ by their dive boats. (see this website)

The first couple Richard Neely, 38, and his American girlfriend Alysson Dalton, 40, spent 19 hours floating above Australia’s Great Barrier Reef before being rescued.

The others, including Britons Charlotte Allin, Jim Manning and Kathleen Mitchinson eventually floated up on Rinca island off Flores with the Komodos.

Jeremy, regarded in Britain as somewhat of a ‘man’s man’, noted that in warm water areas the size of the sharks would hardly classify as a ‘hungry man’s starter’. This even though British newspapers - as they always do when talking about any seas further away than the English channel - described both incidents as taking place in ’shark infested waters’.

It’s been done to me several times by sub-editors in London.

SUB: ‘Well are there sharks there or not ?????

Me:’Yes. There are Reef sharks, black tipped ones, leopard sharks, lovely little ones with spots etc.’

SUB:’Well they’re in f…king shark infested waters aren’t they? (pause) Are’nt they!!???.

How can you argue with that. It doesn’t matter that the sharks, sit, roll over and beg, and eat morsels from your hand, and off Thailand ‘wai’, nick your small change and sell you fake gems, and ‘go short time’. Still ’shark infested waters’ paid for my holidays when Leonardo di Caprio sank while filming off the island of Phuket.

Anyway Jeremy wrote:

‘How’s this for a money-making idea? Simply go on a scuba-diving holiday and get lost. Obviously, you don’t want to be getting, ahem, “separated from the dive boat” in Norway. Or in a gravel pit in Wakefield. It’s best to go to a place where the sea is warm. This will make your “ordeal” quite comfortable. And as an added bonus there will be sharks, which will sound great after you’ve been miraculously rescued and your story is appearing in Hello! magazine’.

He then muses on wittily suggesting that the survivors’ stories were not the ordeals they were cracked up to be.

On the Komodo: “They made it go away by throwing pebbles at it!’

On what prospective drifters should take with them:

‘Things to pack? Well, obviously you’ll need some sandwiches so you have something to eat while you wait for the dive boat to go away. You’ll also need some sun cream, a torch, a portable sat nav system, a harpoon gun and some condoms, in case one of the pretty girls falls for the “Well, since we’re going to die, we might as well” line’.

Well on my deathbed might be one occasion on which even I might definitely forget the condoms.

He goes on…Who you should have in your party

’No mingers. The girls must be prettier than a Caribbean sunset, partly because Hello! is not going to put someone who looks like Ann Widdecombe on the cover’.

Hmm. Chav Jade Goody of ‘Big Brother’ fame and Britain’s most famous minger didn’t do too badly as a cover girl.

The men, on the other hand, should be big and strong so that they can deal with any unfortunate attacks by cannibalistic fishermen or Portuguese men-of-war. But, critically, one must be a concave-chested prat whom you don’t like very much. Because someone has to come home with a half-eaten head, after all..

Where not to do it.

‘Don’t, whatever you do, get yourself lost miles from land in some two-bit Third World backwater where all the rescue-boat captains are on heroin.

I’m not sure I would care if my rescuer was addicted on heroin. I think I would support his addiction for the next six months.

And finally he says:

I do hope my simple guide to making a fortune while on a lovely holiday in the Indian Ocean will come in handy this summer. Because the only way you’ll make more money is by sleeping with Wayne Rooney. And I really wouldn’t fancy that.

I’m taking him at his word for for his last comment. But as for making money by sleeping with Wayne Rooney, some mistake surely. Rooney’s a ‘walk-over’ according to Jeremy’s editors and not the most grateful sleeping partner either. I’m assuming sleeping is a euphamism for something else. The most publicised incident of this nature involved Rooney handing over a miserable £35.50 in a Liverpool brothel I seem to recall. And he was not the first in the queue.

But, dare I say it, a much easier way to make money is to front a syndicated BBC television programme called ‘Top Gear’, and then for a couple of thousand a week pocket money write columns for the Sunday Times and SUN, offering words of wisdom on subjects on which the only knowledge required is from reading the papers provided.

It certainly beats dunking yourself in the ocean off Australia for nineteen hours or off Indonesia for nine for that matter.

Maybe if one dunked the on-screen crew of ‘Top Gear’ in the Med off Ibiza they’d be shrieking like a line of BBC chorus girls after 15 minutes. This is only speculation as we know they’re all macho men do we not?

The BBC should therefore immerse them in the newly developed and open topped, would you believe, sQuba under-water sports car (below) in the sea off Cape Horn for a future programme.

But you just know it don’t you. They’ll steal the idea and dump them off St.Tropez or Puerto Banus and have 007 Jeremy wind down the window and drop out a fish, held between his thumb and index finger, in the unlikely event the car rises up onto the beach.

Jeremy and perhaps could also demonstrate in true Top Gear fashion just how to put on a condom under water in a new episode of Top Gear on underwater shift stick sex.

Still I like Clarkson, not because he thumped former Sun Editor Piers Morgan at the British Press Awards a couple of years back.

(The Sun apparently photographed him snogging his woman producer, which again is not a first. Done it myself I’m afraid. The penalties are greater than being photographed by the SUN) but more because the BBC itself describes him as a man ‘not given to considered opinion’.

There’s a whole library of non pc quotes attributed to him.

I loved this I found in Wikipedia

During the 13 November 2005Top Gear episode, a news segment featuring BMW’s Mini Concept from the Tokyo Motor Show showcased what fellow-presenter Richard Hammond quoted as a “quintessentially British” integrated tea set. Clarkson responded by mocking that they should build a car that is “quintessentially German.” He suggested indicators that displayed Hitler salutes, “a sat-nav that only goes to Poland” and “ein fanbelt that will last a thousand years.”

And there’s more:

In October 1998, Hyundai cars of Korea complained to the BBC about what they described as “bigoted and racist” comments he made at the Motor Show in Birmingham, when he was reported as saying that the people working on the Hyundai stand had eaten a dog, and that the designer of the Hyundai XG had probably had a spaniel for his lunch.

He sort of grows on you doesn’t he?

‘I decided to pluck all my resources to live- The Sun June 09 08

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Andrew Drummond

on June 12, 2008

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British divers swept out to sea tell of their terrifying ordeal

From Andrew Drummond, Pulau Bidadari, Indonesia

For SUN story and slide show click here
UNEDITED VERSION HERE

From Andrew Drummond, Pulau Bidadari, Indonesia

This is the moment 25-yr-old Charlotte Allin thought she was about to die.

Charlotte hanging on to ‘Wilson’. Copyright James Manning

Strapped to a long with four other castaways and having been swept 40 miles by an ocean current her eyes can reveal her anguish. Right now she knows she may never see land again.

The log, on which their lives depend, has been named ‘Wilson’, after the football Tom Hanks dressed up as an imaginary companion in the Hollywood film ‘Castaway’

Public school educated Charlotte knows her only choice is to paddle furiously with her colleagues for land but they are making no headway. It looks like they will be washed away far into the Indian Ocean never to be seen again.

But after weather conditions miraculously changed the party struggled ashore led by the heroics of her former Royal Marine Commando boyfriend only to be attacked by a lethal Komodo Dragon.

Now for the first time Charlotte and her boyfriend Jim Manning, 30, told of their two day two night ordeal, which began on what was their last planned dive off Komodo Islands in Indonesia.

Here on Pulai Bidadari, off the coast of Indonesia near the town of Labuan Bajo, recovering from exhaustion, dehydration, and cuts and bruises, they told of their fateful last dive with colleague Swede Helena Naradainen, Frenchman Lauren Pinel, and dive leader Kathleen Mitchinson, 50, from Carlisle.

“We had just done one dive site called the Hanging Gardens and went for our last dive 65 minutes at a place called Manta Corner.

“The dive went fine with our supervisor Kath. We went down 17 metres at 15.03, according to Jim’s watch, and saw Frog Fish and Scorpion Fish, Moray eels and sharks and surfaced at 16.08.

“We saw our dive boat and signalled. But the boat had its back to us. So we blew n our whistles and put out a bright orange Surface Marker Boy SMB). Still they did not see us so we put up another surface marker boy.

Added Jim: “I had waited for over an hour before to be picked up by a dive boat so I was not worried. But the current was taking us away quite quickly. So we put out a second and third markers boys.

“We drifted past a rock then between two islands. Each time we tried to swim towards the island across the current we failed.”

Said Charlotte: “Jim and I got separated from the rest who had ended up in some sort of whirlpool. We eventually kicked ourselves back to the group blowing whistles.

“By 6pm it was getting very dark. We needed to get to land. We saw lights on an island and tried to paddle towards it. But each time he headed towards an island he current took us past and around it.

“I was talking to the group trying to keep them interested, trying to keep their spirits, but maybe my spirits up. We were getting very thirsty and it was getting cold.

“We drifted past yet another island. The next hour must have been the worst. We knew from our dive leader Kath that the Indonesians could not search at night because of the reefs.

“I thought this is it. We are going to drift off into the Indian Ocean never to be found. I thought we would die of hypothermia. We were not worried about the reef sharks.

“Then we saw something black in the water in front. My first thought that it was a shark, then, more optimistically, a dolphin. But when we swam towards it we saw it was a log. A massive great tree stump about 18 inches in diameter. It was big enough to support us all.

“We clipped ourselves onto to the log and Jim clipped himself to me and I clipped myself on to Helena the Swede.

“Then the weather turned bad. The wind got up and do did the waves with them. We were all attached to the log and we were swirling around in the stormy water.

“We were swallowing water. We tried to use our masks to protect our faces. In the skies we saw shooting stars. Each time we saw one e veryone in the group made a wish. Some wished for dry land. Some wished for safety. I just wished for my life.

“Beside me Helena had taken ill. Basically she was seasick, but in an extreme way.
I tried to talk to everybody. I did not want to die. I made a decision looking up at the stars that I would live or die. I decided I had to pluck up all my resources to live.

“I had to be positive. We all had to stick together. We were kicking continuously even though the wind wand currents were swirling us around all the time. We were kicking to stay warm. Although Helena did not seem to be responding.

“My fingers were red and bruised from digging my nails into the log. My other arm was tucked under Jim’s life jacket. We had long since got rid of our diving weight belts.

“We chatted to each other. I asked Lauren about his travels. I asked Kath about her other diving experiences. Jim joked that he hoped Kath was not going to charge us for a night dive as well. We were just talking and joking to keep our spirits up, but we all knew what was happening was deadly serious.

“We knew we had to find land. Then at about 10.45 at night on Thursday the sea flattened out. Then we started kicked like mental for our lives.”

Said Jim from Barnstaple: “We knew then we had to kick ourselves to some sort of island if we were going to get through this. Everybody was aching. We all had cramps.

“At some point I saw a white patch ahead in the darkness. I thought it might be a beach. I said to the group that I would leave ‘Wilson’ and swim to the white patch. If it was a beach I would return and tell them.

“But some people were not in agreement. Certainly Charlotte was not. It was eventually agreed that both Kath and I go.

“There was a chance that once we let go of ‘Wilson’ we would let go of our lives. But this white patch was the only recognisable solid thing we could see.

“Kath and I swam off together and found we could make good progress without the log. It was ashore. But Kath could not get ashore. She was being flung against the rocks.

“We decided to switch places. I tried to get ashore and succeeded. It was a beach of sorts but there were massive white pebbles in the way. I found a way through and came back to signal to the rest of the group.

“First came Lauren the Frenchman then Helena, then Charlotte and finally Kath.”

Charlotte, Lauren, Helena on the rocks after striking land. Copyright James Manning
“Yes. We were delirious with joy, “ added Charlotte, “but we could not stand up. We had to lie down and look up at the sky. We were cold and shivering with unbearable pain in our legs and stomachs and unable to sleep – but we were alive!”

“Kath had decided that the island we were on was called Pulau Pandar. If that was true, she said, in the next cove would be a sandy beach where fisherman and live aboard dive boats spent a lot of time.

“Kath and Jim would go in the morning to raise the alarm.”

In fact the group had landed on Rinca Island, an island dominated by lethal Komodo Dragons, whose bite is fatal to both man and beast.

But when Kath and Jim went to search the following day they did not know this.

Jim, a former Corporal of 59 Independent Commando Squadron, Royal Engineers, who has done tours of duty both in Afghanistan and in Iraq and had been offered a place on an SAS course, takes up the story.

“When we woke up we found a hill behind us 200 metres high and very steep. This was not a walk it was a climb. Initially it was ok to go on hands and knees, we had to go through and under brambles and thorns.

“But it got to the stage that it was so steep that it one of us fell we were going to be in a very bad situation. I told Kath I would go on my own. And she made her way back to the beach.

“I had to be careful where I was putting my hands. I did not know what was in the crevices. When I got to the top I did see another bay. And started to go down the other side. I was stopped in my tracks. Actually I landed back on my arse rather than stumble right into a beehive, then backtracked.

“I went along the coast along the top of a cliff and saw another bay. I was parched. I could not breathe. The sun had come up and was beating down full and I had not had a drop of want since 2.30 pm the previous day.

“I managed to get down to a beach and dived into a rock pool to cool off.

“By this time I knew it was useless to go back and tell the group that this was the wrong island. I had to go on. I could not go up. The sun was too hot.

“But the cliffs were high and the only way to get round the island was by both swimming and climbing.

“But the swell was getting up too. I still had diving boots, but apart from that I was just about naked. The waves would bounce me against the rocks. I was able to use my boots to fend myself off most of the time, but I took a bit of a beating as well from the sharp rocks and crustaceans.

“When the current caught me it the waves would roll me over, take me out, turn me upside down. I did not know where I was. Each time I recovered I would swim madly for the shore.

“At one point I had to climb again and made my way up the cliff forcing my hands and fists into every available crevice. But this was not like army training, where we used ropes and you could even let yourself fall onto the rope to take a breather.

“Eventually I found a cove with a sandy beach. I thought I saw some people there and started shouting and swearing at them when they did not reply. When I got up closer I realised the people were just rocks, but they looked like people sitting and holding their knees.

“I saw monkeys and a herd of deer but they were too far in the distance. Eventually I found a section of rocks facing the sea, which had three flat shelf-like surfaces on which I could lie, although they were at an angle and I had to use me feet to stop slipping off.

“I could rest there and watch out for boats. I went back to the beach and gathered some leaves. I covered myself in leaves for warmth. All I had was shorts, a Rash Vest.

“I kept staring out to see and saw a boat and again I started shouting, then swearing. But it was not a boat it was a rock.

“At midnight I moved down to the bottom shelf because I could not stay awake to stop myself slipping off the higher shelf.

“Then in the morning after stripping off washing myself in the sea and began my lookout duties again.

“I was struggling to stay awake. Then I saw this speedboat approaching. I jumped and waved and ran down and jumped into the sea. It was 12.30 pm.

“My colleagues were all there. Everybody was smiling, even the Indonesians.

“I did not know I had spent all this time in Komodo Dragon land.”

While Jim was out looking for help Charlotte remained with the rest of the group on the beach where they had landed.

“The first morning our spirits were good. We saw three boats. One looked like it had spotted us and started coming towards us, then it turned away. We were waving our safety sausages (SMBs). We thought it had turned away to summon help.

“I had mixed emotions about Jim. I knew he was capable of doing the climbs and that he was physically and mentally strong. But I knew he could fall and if that happened nobody could help him.

“Kath and I started to get a fire going after collecting dry grass and by using a magnifying glass which she had. But it got really hot and we had to hide in the shade of the rocks, which were like giant white pebbles.

“We also put together an SOS sign made out of these giant white pebbles, but I could only carry one at a time and we were all absolutely parched. We were so, so, so thirsty.

“Every time the thirst played on me I just imagined I had drunk a large glass of Sprite (lemonade) with ice through a straw.

“I felt like I had had a drink. We found a coconut and Kath broke it open. But inside it was rotten. We kept it anyway just in case.

“We kept ourselves occupied by playing hangman or noughts and crosses in the sand.
Lauren the Frenchman spent the morning and afternoon on a lookout rock, coming back at midday for two hours because Kath said the fishermen would not be out during those hours.

“At midday the heat was unbearable there was no shade at all.

“We saw ships in the distance but nobody saw us and by about 4.30 pm I was beginning to despair. We found an overhang in the rocks by the shore and saw water dripping down. Kath and I tried to drink it. When we did we realised it was just sea water from the splashing waves.

“Then suddenly we heard a scream. We saw Helena and right next to her was a Komodo Dragon. It was just inches away. These Komodos can kill buffalo and deer with just one bite.
“The Dragon made a lunch at her and I saw his tongue darting out. Then he grabbed the hood of her suit which was beside her. We rushed and Kath picked up a couple of sticks and beat it, but it did not go away.

“Then the Komodo grabbed Jim’s wet suit which he had left behind. Kath hit the Dragon again and he left go

“We rushed to the sea to fill out bottles with sea water, because we were told the Komodos did not like water. But it did not seem concerned when we threw water over it.

“The Komodo Dragon kept coming back. It was big but not an adult, We knew it must have a mummy and a daddy about somewhere. People and other animals die from the bites from the bacteria.

“I collected all the wetsuits because we needed them to keep warm during the night. We let the Komodo have any masks or flippers or BCDs (buoyancy control devices) he wanted.

“We were confused what were Komodos doing on this island. We huddled together for the night.

“Lauren seemed to have the most energy and we asked him why. He said he had been eating sea snails. That cheered us up. The next morning we knew it was safe to eat them. So having slept all night on some big boulders we went down for breakfast,

“At first we just broke off the shells, smashed them with a stone and swallowed them.
But Lauren was chewing. So we gave them a try. They were black and slimey but actually not bad and we got some juice from them.

“But our spirits were still down. I did not think we would be able to survive one more night. By this time I thought Jim was dead. I thought even if we were rescued I would not leave without him.

“Then about midday we saw a boat out to see turn around and head in our direction.
Could that boat have at last spotted us? We did not want to let our hopes up. But it came on and came on towards us. Oh my God. It IS coming!

“Kath and I dropped on our knees and burst into tears.

“When we got on the boat and had some water we insisted that Jim was still out there. The boat took us around the island and then a crewman shouted from the front. He’s here. My darling was jumping up on a rock and waving his hands. Our lives had been spared.

“We do not blame anyone for what happened. It could have happened to anyone.
We are just so glad all of us to be alive.”

Charlotte and Jim’s trip was organised by Ernest Lewandowski from Locherbie, Scotland and Kathleen Mitchinson, from Carlyle who run Reefseekers Dive Centre out of Labuan Bajo.

Said Ernest afterwards: “We are so happy that everyone is safe. I had already got by group back into the boat. We raised the alarm when we could not find Kath’s group.

“I went to see a local soothsayer in Labuan and she predicted exactly where the group would be found. I am very proud of the way Kath led her group.”

‘

Charlotte, Jim, and Kathleen: Picture: Andrew Chant

Alone on dragon island … How Britons swept away during dive survived their terrifying ordeal - Mail On Sunday June 8 08

Published

Andrew Drummond

on June 12, 2008

in General News and The Times

. 0 Comments

By Andrew Drummond

For full story and pictures click here

Three British divers swept away by powerful currents in the shark-infested Indian Ocean told last night how they fought off an attack by a man-eating Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard.

The group were threatened by the 10ft beast as they awaited rescue on a remote Indonesian island.

They escaped its razor-sharp teeth and poisonous saliva, which it spits at victims, by throwing stones until the predatory animal slunk away.

In a graphic account of their 45-hour ordeal, dive instructor Kathleen Mitchinson described how they survived on nothing more than raw shellfish.

She said the scraps of food - and the knowledge that her partner of 20 years was searching for her - were the only things that kept her alive.

Sitting up in her hospital bed, Ms Mitchinson hugged Ernest Lewandowski and told him tearfully: ‘I didn’t give up hope. I’m so happy to be home and that we are all safe and sound.’

Ms Mitchinson had been in charge of a group of tourists who had gone to Komodo Island, the giant lizards’ natural habitat, last Thursday before setting out in a small wooden boat for what was supposed to be an hour-long dive.

With her were a British couple, former Royal Marine James Manning, 30, and his girlfriend Charlotte Allin, 24, and a Frenchman and a Swede.

Meanwhile Mr Lewandowski was diving with another group of visitors at the same spot. When his party surfaced, they were picked up first by the dive boat team.

But by the time the boat returned for Ms Mitchinson’s group they had been carried away by a strong current.

After a huge search involving the Indonesian navy and dozens of local fishermen, a rescue boat spotted the missing divers’ inflated orange and red ‘safety sausages’ - brightly coloured flotation devices designed to attract the attention of rescuers.

They were laid out in the shape of a cross on the rocks of Rinca Island, about 20 miles from where they had gone missing.

The divers are believed to have been in the water for around ten hours before being
washed on to the rocks.

They were taken to hospital - dehydrated, exhausted and sunburnt, but with no serious injuries.

One Indonesian rescuer said: ‘We saw them at the beach. They said they had found a Komodo dragon on the island which was ready to eat them. They had to throw stones to keep it away.’

Mr Lewandowski, 53, who runs a diving school with Ms Mitchinson on the nearby island of Flores, said the stranded divers had spent a terrifying night being buffeted by huge waves.He added: ‘They are very tired and hungry. The hospital has done a great job. Kath’s just really glad to be home - and grateful to be alive with the whole team.’

Asked about the terror of shark attacks, he replied: ‘They talked about what happened above them, not the creatures below.

‘It has been quite an ordeal, but they are all safe. That’s the most important thing.

‘They had a miraculous escape, but the fact is, they are all experienced divers. This was an absolute freak accident. There was nobody at fault.

‘They did all the right things: They stayed afloat in the surf and kept together as a group.

‘They grabbed hold of flotsam and jetsam and kept hold of that in huge waves out in the Indian Ocean, which were crashing over their heads.

‘They were in dangerous open ocean, the next stop to Antarctica. Most of the time they were totally covered in water.

‘Kath was the team leader and coordinated things, but they all took turns in keeping each other going. They worked as a team, which is one of the things that is vitally important.

‘Eventually, when shallow water was available, they swam towards the shore. They were all supporting each other. Anybody who became a weak link was made to have strength. That’s how they survived.

‘They went with the current, which was the only thing they could do. They kept as close to land as possible and when they could make it to land, they did.’

Ms Mitchinson and Mr Lewandowski, who met while diving in the north of England, have lived in Indonesia for 15 years, the past seven on the island of Flores, where they run a dive centre and turtle nursery.

Both are originally from Carlisle. Mr Lewandowski, 53, spent most of his life in Scotland before moving to the Far East.

He said: ‘Kath knows the area very well and they managed to survive by eating shellfish off the rocks, like little abalone, and utilising what they had around them - the sort of food you eat in posh restaurants.

‘They were eating them raw, which gave them energy and moisture.’

When rescue came, the large dive boat which spotted the castaways was unable to enter the inlet and a smaller craft was dispatched to pick up them up.

Mr Lewandowski said: ‘When I received news over the radio, I was ecstatic. I just wanted to hear Kath’s voice again.’

When they did get their tearful reunion later yesterday back on dry land at Labuan Bajo, Miss Mitchinson’s throat was so dry from swallowing salt water that she could hardly speak.

Mr Lewandowski said: ‘She just said, “I’m home safe and sound. I knew you wouldn’t give up on me…”

‘She had no doubt I would be doing everything in my power to find her. And she knew, no matter what, I wouldn’t stop.’

Mr Manning, from Devon, trained as a Royal Marine engineer and has his paratrooper’s wings.

Speaking at the family home near Cullompton, his brother Ollie said: ‘It’s been an anxious wait and we feared the worst when we were initially contacted and told he was missing.

‘James is a tough lad. He can look after himself. He was in the Army for ten years and I knew that if he could get everybody out of the water and on to a reef or beach then he’d be able to use the survival techniques he’d been taught.’

His mother Sally-Ann said: ‘He is physically shattered but otherwise OK.’

Ms Allin’s sister Sarah-Jane, 26, said at her home in Bideford, Devon: ‘We had a call from the Foreign Office at 5am and then Charlotte herself got through at 7am. She sounded tired and shocked but said she was all right.’

In Komodo National Park, where the three Britons were diving and where most of the creatures live, there have been eight serious incidents since 1980.

In the most recent - the first fatal attack on a human in 33 years - an eight-year-old boy died after he was mauled by a 10ft long, 15st dragon in 2007.

He was tossed around like a rag doll and savaged by the lizard’s razor-sharp teeth as it tried to snap his neck just as it would other prey.

Even if the boy had survived the attack, he would have died of blood poisoning from the 50 virulently toxic species of bacteria contained in the dragon’s saliva.

Probably the best-known victim of the dragons’ dangerous unpredictability is Basic Instinct actress Sharon Stone’s ex-husband Phil Bronstein.

He was on a tour of Los Angeles Zoo in 2001 and was in the dragon’s cage when the creature clamped its serrated teeth down on his foot.

After prising its jaw open and escaping, he had to have surgery to reattach severed tendons and rebuild a crushed big toe and was given massive doses of antibiotics to combat the poisonous saliva.

Attacks on humans are rare and the creatures, which are notoriously bad-tempered, mainly feed on monkeys, pigs, wild deer and even water buffalo.

A skilled and savage hunter, it is the only lizard species that hunts and kills prey larger than itself, and larger than it can swallow whole.

It can sprint at 15mph and has a keen sense of smell. But instead of chasing its prey, it prefers to lie still and camouflaged before lunging and sinking its teeth into its victim.

Experts say that even if its prey escapes, it will die within hours from septicaemia.

But despite its awesome strength, the komodo dragon is on endangered species lists and is under threat from tourism, poaching and volcanic activity.

About 3,000 live on Komodo Island and other islands 300 miles east of Bali, and there are some in captivity - a clutch of four was born at London Zoo in 2006.

Dive industry split over ‘Open Water’ hero - June 01 08

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Dive industry split over ‘Open Water’ drama, but life-saving British diver is ‘real hero’ say colleagues

From Andrew Drummond, Phuket

The British diver involved in the controversial ‘Open Water’ drama off the Great Barrier Reef has been acclaimed as a ‘real hero’ by colleagues despite accusations levelled against him in Australia of negligence.

The holiday diving industry has been split as a row rages over Richard Neely’s 19 hour ordeal in shark infested waters with his American girlfriend Allyson Dalton, 40, after their dive boat sailed off without them.

The incident is compared to a real life drama made into the Hollywood film ‘Open Water’ which about a couple who did not survive after an almost identical incident.

Critics in Australia have said that 38-yr-old Richard Neely, from Swaffham, Norfolk, and his American girlfriend were at best negligent, and at worst guilty of planning their disappearance for the cash and attention.

And this has infuriated colleagues in the diving community who are aware of the Briton’s bravery in saving the lives of tourists in another ‘Open Water’ drama – this time off the coast of Thailand.

Angry colleagues in the international diving community in Thailand where he last worked have described the attacks on him as ‘tacky’, ‘below the belt’ and ‘insulting’.

“To us Rich is a hero and a true one at that. He will not say it but we can. In April 2005 he saved six passengers when their live aboard dive boat Rhapsody sank,” Swede Mona Fristedt, managing director of Oceanic Dive Centre, in Karon Beach on the holiday island of Phuket.

The incident happened off Richelieu Rock in the Surin islands in the Andaman Sea. Ms. Fristedt added: “The boat started taking on water for no apparent reason. Richard gathered the six passengers and seven Thai crew and roped them together. They were afloat for seven hours and many must have thought they were not going to survive the night.

“Rich kept their spirits up and checked the stars explaining the situation to them all and keeping their confidence up.

“Losing a boat like this is an operator’s worst nightmare. But the passengers were so impressed with Rich that none even ventured a complaint. Divers were later sent down by the insurance company but they could not find a reason why the boat sank.

“As far as diving regulations are concerned Rich was meticulous. And to think he would want to go through a similar experience is quite absurd.”

Rich Neely and his American girlfriend Alysson Dalton, 40, were accused in the press in Australia of cashing in on their own negligence after losing contact with their dive boat, off Gary’s Lagoon on the Great Barrier Reef off Townsville, Queensland.

They were told that they should have to pay the cost of their rescue which involved search seven helicopters, three planes and six boats.

Central to the row is where and how they surfaced after their dive in Gary’s Lagoon.

OzSail owners of Pacific Star Charter claimed they surfaced in the wrong place and did not use their surface marker buoy.

But both these claims were untrue said Richard Neely. He denied approaching media agencies to sell his story but admitted that reported figures upwards of $250,000 which the couple are alleged to have made could have piqued a few people.

“To start with, we were just 200m from the boat, which normally wouldn’t be a problem. We would just swim back.”

“But the wind and waves had got up and it just took us away from the reef. We were signaling. I had my surface marker buoy, a very long inflatable yellow sausage about two metres long, and I had a whistle.

“We were shouting and whistling but nobody saw us. We saw other divers climbing back on to the boat and lifting out their equipment.

“The boat stayed where it was, on a mooring, but we just kept drifting further away. There was nothing we could do.”

They watched helplessly as the charter catamaran sailed away.

But Ozsail’s Managing Director Fraser Yule insisted they did not use their marker buoy and disobeyed instructions.

‘The dive brief for the dive from which Allyson and Richard failed to return included strict and specific instruction from the dive instructor not to leave Gary’s Lagoon.

‘Allyson and Richard did not remain on the dive site. Allyson and Richard did not follow the clear instructions of the dive instructor. Allyson and Richard did not surface immediately upon leaving Gary’s Lagoon

The couple’s story was immediately criticised by the Australian press as being ‘fishy’

It was suggested that Rich had worn an extra heavy dry suit and had a bottle of water and was thus prepared and may even have been planned his own dramatic disappearance.

The couple had to on television in Australia to deny the reports describing them as hurtful and damaging to their integrity.

They had Divers Alert Network Insurance which would automatically pay for the costs of their rescue but suggested OzSail should also pay.

“Our insurance covers the rescue but we wouldn’t have been in that situation had the dive company followed standard operating procedures and therefore it’s not our fault that there was all of this effort made to rescue us - it was the dive boat operators,” she said,” said Miss Dalton.

Despite the furor Neely’s colleague in Thailand where he worked as the team leader and chief insructor on board the motor vessel Queen Scuba for three years, are convinced he was in the right.

Briton Jamie Monk manager of Sunrise Divers, Phuket added: “People who know rich know he has integrity. To suggest he planned his own disappearance is below the belt and tacky. Rich was undoubtedly the most popular and most experience diving instructor on Phuket. Every dive shop on the island wanted him. I just know how good he was by listening to the comments from the people he took out.”

South African Tjaart Venter, of Calypso Divers, Phuket added: “He was absolutely first class, a real leader. He was very thorough and would not take any risks. I cannot believe he acted in any way irresponsibly in Australia and it’s insulting to suggest he went missing deliberately. Who would do such a thing in the Great Barrier Reef.”

Mike Thomas, 30, from Newport, Wales, of Coral Grand Divers who worked with Richard Neely living aboard the Queen Scuba for the company Coral Grand Dive in the Andaman Sea until last month added: “He was very professional. His pre-trip briefings were excellent. He would cover every aspect of safety.

“I don’t know what happened when he was in Australia but I know he would have done everything correctly. He’s just that sort of man.

“He was very safety conscious. If he thought the conditions at any site could be dangerous he would change the venue. He was also a very funny and likeable man and a pleasure to work with.

Another colleague from Coral Grand Divers, instructor Jack Zielinski, 40, from Helsinki, Finland said: “Rich was the best and funniest tour leader I have ever had. He was the spirit ‘Queen Scuba’. Everyone who came into contact with Rich was the better for it. Now that he has gone it is everyone’s loss.”

Michael Click, 35, a diving instructor from Phoenix, Arizona, who also lived and worked aboard Queen Scuba added: “I cannot understand the fuss coming from Australia. I guess its one of those cases where the Aussies think they know best.

“But I will say this, the Aussie company are lucky it was Rich who went missing. If it had been somebody else it would have been a fatality.”

“Rich is known throughout Phuket. He is the best tour leader there is. I have been diving for 19 years but I would not be as half as good as I am now if it were not for him.

“Neither he or Ali need cash from the media. Ali is a successful businesswoman and has a thriving restaurant in Sacramento, California.”

Pictures:Andrew Chant andrew@andrewchant.com , Coral Grand Divers, Richard Neely

Link to Briton and girlfriend survive 19 hours in shark infested waters - Sunday Mirror

Divers ignored safety instructions - Daily Telegraph

Out of their depth - The Great Barrier Reef Mystery - Independent

‘I have no cash, no job’ says Mr. Swirly dealing with compensation claim June 2 08

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“I have, no cash, no job, and can’t work” replies Mr. Swirly after being asked to discuss compensation to child’s father

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

Monday June 2^nd 2008

Canadian paedophile suspect Christopher Neil, now better known as ‘Mr. Swirly’, came face to face with the father of one of his victims in court in Bangkok yesterday.

But when asked by the judge if he would like to discuss compensation Neil replied: “I could talk to him all day but I cannot do anything about it. I have no money. I have no job and I can’t work!”

Neil, 33, , who sparked off an international manhunt after German Federal Police cleared up swirly pictures which allegedly showed him having sex with minors, appeared at Bangkok Criminal Court accused of four counts of child abuse with young boys aged 9 and 14.

When the charges were put to him and he was asked how he pleaded, Neil from Maple Ridge, British Columbia replied: “I deny all charges.”

Just minutes earlier his state appointed interpreter lawyer Kittiporng Kiattanapoom had given on camera interviews claiming the Canadian, who had secured teaching jobs in Thailand and Korea, had confessed to indulging in oral sex with the children.

Neil said he was penniless as he faced the father of the nine year old boy, named in the charges, whom the judge told him was seeking compensation of 300,000 Thai baht (Can$9,166. or £4,693) .

Neil was remanded back in custody to Bangkok’s Klong Prem prison where he has been since last October when he was arrested in Nakorn Ratchassima, North Eastern Thailand following a global manhunt initiated by an Interpol alert.

The case was adjourned until October 7.

The children whose pictures were found on the internet are believed to be from Cambodia or Vietnam, but after his arrest the two Thai boys aged 9 and 14 claimed he had also molested them.

Pictures: Andrew Chant: andrew@andrewchant.com

British traffic cop turns to ’sex trafficker’ May 22 08

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on May 21, 2008

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British traffic cop turns to ‘sex trafficker’ Picture left AP
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

May 21 2008

A former Liverpool traffic policeman was arrested in Thailand yesterday for trafficking in women to the sex slave trade in Britain.

Ian Shuttleworth, aged 42, was arrested at his Bangkok apartment after a tip of to Thai police.

He is alleged to have ‘ridden shotgun’ escorting women to Britain supposedly to get jobs in Thai restaurants.

He not only charged the women a fee but sold them on, one for £28,000, and allegedly took sexual liberties from his victims in the process, claimed Thai police.

At the time Shuttleworth was living on a disability pension – while at the same time running a private detective agency checking out whether Thai girlfriends of British holiday makers were remaining faithful.

His arrest followed Met Police raids in London which resulted in 30 Thai women being released from the sex trade.

Nine Thai citizens appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on April 22 in connection with the trafficking ring which involved five brothels in the London area.

They were accused of running brothels, sexual exploitation and money laundering.

Many of the victims claimed they were forced to sleep with men to pay off debts of up to £28,000.

In Shuttleworth’s case he is specifically accused of offering a Thai woman a job in London. He flew with her then once they had entered Britain he forced her to have sex with him in London, Coventry and Scotland before he sold her to a brothel Madame in a London restaurant.

The victim, who was sold to Pongpoj Pitayanakul, aged 31, a married women and one of the nine facing court charges, told police that her father paid Shuttleworth the 530,000 Thai baht (£8,300) to get her a visa and job in a restaurant in the U.K.

She later gave a statement to police, said Police General Panya Maman, who added that charges had yet to be placed.

For the last four years Shuttleworth has been running a private detective agency in Bangkok called Thai-PI (www.thai-pi.com) from a rented suite in the city’s Sukhumvit Road. After retiring from Merseyside police with a disability pension due to a back proble,. He works in partnership with another former British policeman who founded the agency and who is now back in Britain.

The company website, which was closed down last night claimed that Thai-Pi was started by a former British detective with experience in investigating murder, anti-terrorism, drug trafficking and intelligence. The second partner was also a former policeman.

Among his agency’s special services are ‘Peace of Mind’ reports. Over pictures of Bangkok a-go-go dancers, he asked: “Wonder what she’s doing? Need Reassurance???? Thai Pi. Diligence and Confidentiality.
Shuttleworth, born in St.Helen’s Merseysaid has denied being involved in woman trafficking. But he has made no statement to police.

“They must arrest me in the circumstances because of the allegation that has been made.

“At the moment, I don’t really know exactly what the situation is,” he said.

His son James, who is in Bangkok told BBC London: “I know my dad has nothing to worry about.”

Nobody was available for comment at his office yesterday. An English woman who answered his phone, who said she was not related to Shuttleworth said: “I don’t know what is happening. I don’t know where he is.”

Yesterday the owner of a bar in Patpong, Bangkok, where Shuttleworth was a regular said: “This is difficult to believe. Ian is such a nice guy.”

In a letter to the Bangkok Post newspaper yesterday Alayne Howard Head of Visa Services at the British Embassy in Bangkok responded to suggestions by a reader that influential agents had been able to easily gain visas for Thai girls to Britain.

“We are aware of a number of agents operating throughout Thailand there agents are not way connected to the Embassy and have no influence over the outcome of an application,” he said.

Ex-Liverpool CID officer arrested in Thailand for sex trafficking - Liverpool Post

Former police officer arrested in Thailand for sending sex slaves to U.K. - Daily Mail

‘Please let us come home’ pleads father in Philippines adultery case - April 21

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From Andrew Drummond,

Bangkok

Sunday April 20^th 2008

A Briton, who fled the Philippines with his girlfriend and baby daughter to avoid being jailed on adultery charges, said today (Sunday) that he would undergo DNA tests in Bangkok to prove that he was the baby’s father.

And he begged British officials to allow him to go home with his new family to start a new life.

David Scott, 36, from Swindon, a Ministry of Defence sub-contractor specialising in armour, fled

Manila after being told by the British Embassy that his daughter – Janina- who was born while he was on the run from authorities was not legally his.

Officials said Janina, now three months old, who Mr. Scott brought to Bangkok with his girlfriend Cynthia Delfino, was under

Philippines law, the daughter of Cynthia’s husband Noriel, from whom she had been separated for three years. Divorce is illegal in the Philippines.

The couple met on an internet Facebook style site while Cynthia Delfino, 28, was working as a supervisor at a hotel in

Abu Dhabi. She initiated proceedings to annul her marriage and the husband agreed. But he stopped proceedings when he found the couple’s picture on the internet.

Delfino then angrily brought adultery charges against the couple who were arrested on December 30 last year and imprisoned. They faced seven years in jail for adultery and Noriel Delfino could have claimed the baby.

Having been bailed and on the run Noriel who took a second adultery charge out so that their bail would be withdrawn. The couple had to live in derelict houses and even a banana plantation for fear of re-arrest.

The couple claimed they had to pay bribes for bail totalling £6000 for documents to get out of the country and to Philippines Immigration 03David Scott 1 officials.

“At the moment we are stranded in Asia. I cannot leave my sweetheart and baby behind. I am pleading with the British government to allow us all to come home.

“We are hoping someone back home has a heart.”

The couple have recruited the support of their local M.P. Anne Snelgrove (Swindon South). They hope their application will succeed outside the laws of the Philippines.

Link: Evening Advertiser

Briton charged with adultery flees Philippines with baby - Daily Mail 21/04

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British father who fled Philippines begs the government to let him bring his family to UK - Daily Mail

Safe: Dad facing jail for adultery - Sunday Mirror April 20 08

Link: Why wont the Foreign Office help? Mail on Sunday

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

A British father, who faces seven years jail for adultery, has successfully fled the Philippines with his new born baby daughter to save her being taken from him by local officials.

David Scott, 36, who spent the New Year locked up in Manila with his Filipina girlfriend Cynthia Delfino after being arrested at gunpoint – was last night safe in with his new family Bangkok.

scottd05 Thailand “He’s my Superman,” his girlfriend and mother of his baby, Cynthia Delfino: “It’s so good to be free at last, and that’s down to him, but our future is still uncertain. I have to throw myself on the mercy of the British government to be with our baby” .

Said David Scott. “Now I can fight without my hands tied to bring my daughter home.”

The couple escaped with their baby Janina, after a three month ordeal during which they said they were locked up in a squalid cell smeared with blood and human excreta forced to live in the jungle and derelict houses forever in fear of re-arrest and blackmailed by greedy officials seeking to cash in on their dilemma.

For David Scott, he said, it was a race against time to stop the authorities in the Philippines taking his child away from him. For under Philippines law the baby was not legally his.

Legally, although he was the natural father, little Janina Scott, belonged to Noriel Delfino, Cynthia’s husband who had agreed to an annulment, but changed his mind when he saw David was a foreigner and sent in a bill for £7000 for ‘loss of face’ instead.

“I was not going to let him or the authorities take away my daughter – over my dead body!” said David in Bangkok.

When David flew in to the Philippines late last year to prepare for his baby’s birth he was ‘on top of the world’. The husband, who had been separated from Cynthia for three years, had agreed to an annulment (Cynthia and David were paying) and David was looking forward to becoming a dad.

Their world was shattered on December 30^th when armed police, immigration officials and officers of the National Bureau of Investigation stormed their house in Caloocan, north of the capital Manila, accompanied by the husband.

Said David, 35, a technician working on sub contracts for armour the Ministry of Defence: “ Our house was surrounded and all the police had drawn weapons on us. I have never seen so many guns. You would have thought we were terrorists.

“When we were taken to the police station a policeman pointed to one of the police vehicles, which was full of bullet holes, and said to me with a laugh: ‘I took the guy who did this round to the back of the car and put a bullet in his head’.

“They charged us and put us in a large cell with scores of others. Then Cynthia negotiated a cell of our own. We had to pay an extra £10 per night to be alone together.

“The wall of our cell was covered with blood and human excreta. It was filthy and rats would come and go as they pleased. Three days later were eventually offered bail of about £150, but we had to pay over £1000 under the table just to get it.

“I could see this case was not about right or wrong. It was about who could make money out of it.

scottd06 “As soon as we got out of sight we just ran. We were in contact with the Embassy by phone. We lived rough in a derelict house, with friends, and some nights in a banana plantation, cooking over a wood fire. We were terrified of being re-arrested.

“We knew the husband did not care about his divorce or Cynthia, he just wanted the money. He wanted to get us back into jail because there we would be vulnerable and probably be happy to pay to get out.

“But the fact is my money had run out. Everywhere we turned bribes were demanded and I was not going to be blackmailed any more. I felt like an escaped prisoner of war. I could not go out in public because I might be recognised.”

David’s call to the Embassy confirmed just how much trouble they were in. Officials told him that even though he was the baby’s natural father, legally the Embassy had to abide by the law that said the child belonged to Delfino.

The response was followed by the usual Foreign Office comment in such cases: “We cannot interfere with the law of our host country.”

But after taking up the case with his M.P. Anne Snelgrove (Swindon South) the Embassy did a u-turn saying that if he could produce a birth certificate, and provide DNA tests witnessed by Embassy officials the child could obtain British citizenship. But process could take up to eight months!

But with only days left before his re-arrest David, he had no choice but to flee. Together with Cynthia and two month old Janina, born in a private clinic while on the run, he bribed Philippine officials to get him onto a Philippines Airlines flight to

Bangkok.

Said Cynthia: “We did not get out a day to soon. On the day we left we heard at the airport that police had issued another warrant for our arrest because my husband had taken a second case of adultery against us both in another court.

But before we left I had been summonsed to the family court to give evidence in my annulment case. But the judge did not even turn up.

“But my husband and his family were there and my lawyer and I were tailed by their private detectives. They followed us everywhere and it was difficult to shake them off.

“Eventually after two hours my lawyer called my husbands lawyer and told him to call off the detectives, because no matter how long it took we would never show them where we lived.

“It’s good to be out and safe with our baby. But this means I cannot go back to the Philippines. They will not give me bail again and I will be jailed for adultery.

“The only crime I am guilty of is sleeping with the man I love. My husband and I had been separated for a long time. It was he that sent me to work as a supervisor at a hotel in Abu Dhabi and told me to send money home. All he did was sit at home and wait for the money.”

Tomorrow Monday the couple will go to the Police Hospital in

Bangkok for DNA tests to prove without any doubt that David is the father.

British officials say they do not need to witness the DNA tests as the system is more reliable than in the

Philippines. But the couple are taking no chances.

David met Cynthia, a psychology graduate, on and internet Facebook style site while she was working as a supervisor at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.