Tag Archive for 'Irish'

Irishman’s death on round the word tour linked to heroin - Irish Independent April 5 08

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Andrew Drummond
on April 5, 2008
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Link: Irishman’s death on round-world trip linked to drugs - Irish Independent

By Paul Melia and Andrew Drummond
Saturday April 05 2008
The body of a 32-year-old Co Louth man who died in Thailand after allegedly taking a cocktail of drugs is expected back in Ireland today.

Police said yesterday they had closed the file on the death of Elliot Blake (32), blakee01who died while on a round-the-world trip with his girlfriend.

Mr Blake, who was understood to be living in Navan, Co Meath, died in a guest house in the early hours of last Monday after he was found staggering on the street.

His girlfriend, Claire Duignan (23), from Westmeath, woke in the Top North guest house in the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai to discover his body.

Despite efforts to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police in Thailand said yesterday there was no evidence of foul play in Mr Blake’s death. However, the results of a post- mortem have not been released.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed his death, and said it was providing assistance to his family. A spokeswoman refused to comment further, saying it was a private matter.

His girlfriend told police that Mr Blake had been a heroin user in Ireland, and had acquired the substitute methadone from a local hospital.blakee03

“Earlier in the evening we went out for some food and a few drinks, but nothing much,” Ms Duignan said yesterday.

“We came back to the guest house and I went to the room, while Elliot stayed downstairs watching TV.

“When I left him he was quite normal, then much later when he didn’t come back to the room I went looking for him.

“I found him on a nearby road staggering back to the guest house. He was completely different from when I left him and I had to help him back to the room. When I woke up I didn’t realise he had died. I poured water on his face to wake him up but it didn’t work.

“We’ve been travelling for a year now, Elliot used to use heroin in Ireland but since we’ve been traveling he hasn’t. When we got to Chiang Mai he went to a hospital and got some methadone.”

It is understood Mr Blake may have combined methadone with valium, which led to his death. Chiang Mai is a popular destination with backpackers.

Mr Blake’s family travelled to Thailand earlier in the week to arrange for his body to be flown home.

The couple had decided to travel around south-east Asia, and local sources said it was easy to access drugs in Chiang Mai.

- Paul Melia and Andrew Drummond

Pictures: Andrew Chant/Boem Chiang Mai

It all went tits up! Nov. 20 2007

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Andrew Drummond
on November 20, 2007
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Pensioner drugged and robbed by women in Thailand

By Andrew Drummond in Bangkok

Tuesday November 20 2007
A retired Irish businessman living in Thailand has had his savings stolen by two women who drugged and robbed him.
Jerry McCarthy (66), from Co Louth, woke up with a headache after befriending two women in a bar.

He signed a statement with Thai police saying he had taken them back to his home in Pattaya, which is 100 miles east of Bangkok.

This police statement suggested he may be the latest victim of two local women who smear themselves with a powerful drug.

But last night Mr McCarthy denied this, releasing a statement saying: “I refute it (the police statement) absolutely as it does not at all reflect what occurred that night.”mccarthyj01

Mr McCarthy, from Dundalk Street, Carlingford, a separated father of two, and a former manager of a plastics company, said: “The robbery arose after the non-alcoholic drink I was drinking in a bar was spiked with an illegal substance.

“Following the robbery I was interviewed by the police while still recovering from the illegal substances which was administered to me. A statement was presented to me to sign in Thai and not in English.”

He lost €3,200, his laptop computer, and two mobile phones when he collapsed after he brought the women back to his home.

Police in Pattaya said that the chances of making an arrest were slim.

Police Colonel Kongrit Thamasatien said: “He also lost his passport and his credit cards. The cash was in his safe. The two women managed to escape with the entire safe and its contents. We believe a number of foreign tourists have been drugged recently by the same two women.”

Last night Mr McCarthy said he wanted to clarify some issues with Thai police.

“I have contacted the Thai police with a view to amending my statement to reflect what actually happened and to clear my name.”

Mr McCarthy, described by people in Carlingford as a “quiet man, who kept to himself”, is a former captain of Greenore golf club.

* Pattaya police said that McCarthy stated that he had driven into the city from his home on Pratamnak Hill, picked up two girls in Soi 12 and stopped at a 7/11 to buy drinks on the way home. It was at his home after playing with the girls, in a way which is now disputed, that he became ill and blacked out.

In a sensational case in 1995 three Austrian steelworkers slept through Christmas at the Thai Garden Resort in North Pattaya after being administered with an ‘Upjohn’ drug by girls who had apparently smeared their nipples.Upjohn07

Photos and videos of two of them snoring well into the police investigation were beamed around the world, and to their wives back home, long before their return.

- Andrew Drummond in Bangkok

Irish Independent story

WARNING FROM THE PATTAYA CITY NEWS, edited by Howard Miller

“A much publicized new form of drugging was apparently used by the two women which we will explain in full, for the benefit of others who may get caught out by the same trick. The women had placed medication on their breasts and encouraged the victim to lick this particular area. He failed to realize that he was ingesting a flavorless chemical which causes you to lose consciousness.

Headline from the London SUN:   ‘It all went tits up!”