Andrew Drummond

on July 18, 2010

. 3 Comments

ANDREW DRUMMOND
Bangkok July 18 2010
This is a blog only

The response to the death of Stuart O’Neill and the resulting flood of touching messages that followed have over the last two weeks turned around a really tragic incident into a celebration of the life of a great and funny friend.
Now I am being brought back to earth with a bump by a flurry of messages from Pattaya -a land far far away.

Neils Colov

Neils Colov, Thailand’s greatest living and possibly most famous rehabilitated Dane and publisher of the Pattaya People, has written to inform me that he is not at war with rival publisher American Drew Noyes, of the Pattaya Times as I reported at the beginning of this year, so I am of course more than happy to pass on the news.
I was guessing somewhere along the way there were legal threats or it seemed that way from an email from Mr. Colov, published at the end of this blog. But no, according to Drew they have both found much in common.

For a start they both have better biographies than Mother Theresa. And if you read them, here and here (but searching the net further could be bad for your health) these two chaps appear to be very close to canonization. Something which, I guess, is quite possible in Pattaya at the right price.
Of course close to sainthood too was the former owner of a Pattaya gay venue who had been trying to get me into jail for years! And it took the Appeal court to decide otherwise.

Drew Noyes 1997?

Anyway, the thing is, with the current economic and tourism downturn in Pattaya close to a tourism disaster zone neither sees any future in pursuing personal grudges.
Of course, generally speaking if the truth be told, they can’t tell it. There is only one way to run an English language newspaper in Pattaya, and that is with total subservience to police, local authorities, and local mafia.
The only local publications I have seen not doing that in Thailand are ‘Phuketwan’ an internet news site down in Phuket, or the wonderful Pim Kemasingki’s “Citylife’ up in Chiang Mai. Alan at Phuketwan runs close to the wind and even chastises his more challenged readers. Pim runs a mag with integrity but keeps her views to her editorials and wisely keeps out of the mire.
In Pattaya we have had reporters operating as policemen, and bail bondsmen. The British Embassy many years ago had a complaint from a British citizen on a cheque fraud charge that he was interviewed by a police volunteer with an electric stun gun*. Then the police volunteer, seemingly a bit of a ‘Ben Ten,’ transformed into a ‘bail bondsmen’ telling him the price for an acquittal , and finally he transformed into what was his normal job, a journalist, and was able to quote a price for keeping his case out of the television or newspapers.
Of course the latter cannot happen now because there are too many English language newspapers in Pattaya.
The recent news from the British Embassy, that no British paedophile arrested since 2004 has been refused bail, sort of confirms that other things are still going on and of course there is wild speculation down in Pattaya over Mikhail Pletnev, the famous Russian pianist and conductor, who is playing the game well, telling the world the Pattaya police are doing a wonderful job, while awaiting trial on charges brought by them of child sexual abuse.
Good news though comes from Kevin Quill, who was convicted of a drugs possession charge in Pattaya, convicted, acquitted then convicted again, despite a statement by an Assistant Commissioner of Police in Bangkok to the British Embassy that he had been ‘framed’.
He has now been given an ‘Amnesty’, he tells me. And will soon be able to get his life back. Looks like he has found a publisher for his book too and if there is anybody who can report how ‘colurful’ Pattaya can get its this man.

CORRECTIONS

Thursday July 15th 2010

Dear Andrew
Pattaya Times has removed all (false) stories about me from their website, as I consider them not only false but also defamatory. I would like to ask you to remove the same stories for the same reason. “
Kind regards Niels Colov

Friday July 16th 2010

Dear Andrew,
I have never met this Lance Shaw and I do not know him or as such had any dealings with him ever. I misunderstood the people who I met at the Pattaya Police station, to think that Lance Shaw was another person that I had met before, this person’s name is however Lane and not Lance. I only spoke with the foreigners at the police station for a few minutes and they told me that they had difficulties to present their case to the police at the station, the only thing I said to them was “why don’t you contact a lawyer and let him help you present the case to the police”, they asked me if I knew a lawyer and I said that I do not recommend any lawyers to be better than others, but when they kept on asking me for a name of a lawyer, I said that the chairman of the Esarn Association in Pattaya was known to be a good man and his name was Khun Sucreep. That was it. I have been mixed up in this case without any reason. I know nothing about the case and thats it.

Kind regards
Niels Colov

Friday July 16 2010

The story you mentioned appears to be still up on the Pattaya Times site. Please would you clarify. Nor have I received confirmation that the Pattaya Times will remove it.

Andrew Drummond

Friday July 16th 2010

Hi Andrew,

Yes, it is true Niels and I have come to terms with all outstanding issues. Our newspapers serve very different markets and we have no advertisers in common, so there is no newspaper war between Pattaya Times and Pattaya People.

The www.Pattaya-Times.com website has been edited to remove indirect statements about Niels’s possible involvement with Lance Shaw. Niels says he met Lance Shaw, says he did introduce two of Shaw’s victims to a lawyer so those quotes from the victims are left intact.

It is important to note that Niels is significantly more relaxed and laid back than before and I am, also. Pattaya is changing. Fewer Anglo-Saxons, less money. Niels and I have children with whom we spend our free time. Business is secondary to family.

As Expat leaders, foreign business owners, long-time Pattaya residents and family men with Thai wives and 50/50 kids Niels and I have more in common than most.

Over my last 13 years here in Pattaya Niels and I formed and have been leaders of the same Expat Club, served in the same Rotary Club, served in the Pattaya Business and Tourism Association (PBTA) and other associations and have been the only foreign advisors and organizers for many events sponsored by Pattaya City and Chonburi governments to attract more Expat participation in cultural and sporting events. We did this even when we did not like each other. We worked together. We did it to help make a difference to improve the quality of life for Expats in Pattaya.

As far as Lance Shaw goes, our research shows no conclusive proof that Niels was involved with Lance Shaw except as stated above.

It is better to all get along and forget about the past. Supporting each other rather than fighting with each other is good for morale of the rest of the foreigners you, he and I serve.

Best wishes,

Drew

Saturday July 17th

Dear Andrew,

Your headline: “Ouch! First salvo in Pattaya newspaper war?”

- does not have much relevance as there is no so called “Newspaper war” here in Pattaya.

Rgds.

Niels Colov

Sunday July 18 2010
Dear Niels,

I am happy to correct my blog on an unsubstantiated claim that you were in some way in cohoots with Lance Shaw. This is not only corrected on the original blog but will also in a blog today. Your claim that the headline ‘Ouch! First salvo in Pattaya newspaper war?’ is no longer relevant, is also noted.
May peace reign.

PS: I hear the radio stations are at war now.

Monday July 19th 2010

No problem with the radio station in Pattaya.

Nils Colov

*STUN GUNS: I was down in Pattaya two weeks ago on a feature assignment and found that stun guns are now on the list of things being touted by the endless bar hawkers. They are obviously de rigeur for the average tourist to the city……………..but didn’t it used to be just flowers and chewing gum, watches, lighters, and daughters?

Phnom Penh garbage man to be second Briton to be deported under Thai Immigration new ‘no sex offender policy’

Published

on June 30, 2010

Link to Reporting Child Sexual Abuse and Robcoy

. 12 Comments

From ANDREW DRUMMOND

Bangkok June 29 2010

Link to Daily Mirror

A convicted British child abuser was today being held in custody in Bangkok and is expected to be the second Briton deported under the country’s new anti-paedophile policy.

David Fletcher

David Fletcher, 66, from Saffron Walden, Essex, was arrested at a guest house in Bangkok after fleeing Cambodia where he was running a charity for children on a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Fletcher fled Cambodia after his conviction in July 1997 for abusing a 15-yr-old girl came to light in Phnom Penh. Jailing him for 18 months at Norwich Crown Court Judge David Mellor had said: “You exploited a young girl with the lure of money and the disinhibitions of drink, then videoed what happened.”
Fletcher, a former hairdressing salon manager with salons in Saffron Walden and Cambridge had negotiated a £150 dowry to the mother of a 17-yr-old Cambodian girl at the dump for her hand in marriage. But before fleeing he had asked for his engagement ring back.

Gary Robcoy

Earlier this month Gary Robcoy, 30, of Wapping, East London, became the first Briton to be deported from Thailand purely for his criminal background of child sexual abuse. Robcoy had been found teaching at a school in Bangkok.
A spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, Immigration Department said that Fletcher had been arrested under immigration rules.
“People convicted of sexual offences of minors in their own countries cannot expect a welcome here.”

David Fletcher at Stung Mean Chey garbage dump

Andrew Drummond acquitted - FCCT Dateline

Published

on May 22, 2010

. 1 Comment

FCCT - Dateline story on Andrew Drummond April 2010

This is a copy of ‘Dateline’ April 2010 edition produced by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand. It will be their copyright of course, so for those without Clark Kent powers of vision who actually want to read it, well try here. But if you close one eye and squint with the second…..

Andrew Drummond cleared in Thai ‘MacMafia’ libel trials

Published

Link to Society of Editors

on March 16, 2010

in Others

. 53 Comments

BY ANDREW CHANT, Bangkok

Link to New Statesman

link to Press Gazette

Scots sex club kings lose fight to have brave journalist jailed

March 15 2010
A British journalist, who exposed the activities of two Scots – nicknamed the ‘Gay MacMafia’- in the Thai sex resort of Pattaya, has been cleared of two cases of criminal libel after a nine year court battle.
Freelance correspondent Andrew Drummond, 57, former correspondent of ‘The Observer’ and London ‘Times’, was cleared of libeling James Lumsden, 59, from Falkirk, who with his partner Gordon May, 67, from Edinburgh, was one of the biggest foreign players in the resort’s gay sex industry.
Drummond, also a Scot, from Edinburgh, and former bureau chief of the News of the World in Scotland, wrote a series of articles describing the misfortunes that befell Britons who were encouraged to go into business with Lumsden and May.
In April 1990, Iain Macdonald, 28, the son of a former Provost of Inverness, died in a fire at the Ambiance Hotel in Pattaya, owned by Lumsden & May, just one month after he had inexplicably bequeathed his £250,000 inheritance in 50 per cent of May and Lumsden’s business -’Boyz Boyz Boyz’ club and the Ambiance Hotel -to Gordon May’s boyfriend – a Thai male a-go-go dancer.
The will was illegal, because it was signed by the beneficiary. The male a go-go dancer got nothing, but Iain’s mother, Eileen MacDonald, never got the money back anyway, wrote Drummond.

Jim Lumsden as an 'artiste' - File photo Pattaya Gay Festival

A second businessman Kevin Quill, 39, from Bradford, Yorkshire, invested over £300,000 in a business called Patika Ltd. with May and Lumsden which, was also a hotel and bar.
Quill was arrested in 2000 by Pattaya Police after leaving the Ambiance Hotel. When police searched his luggage they found 170 cartons of contraband Benson & Hedges cigarettes. In one packet in one carton they found nearly 100 methamphetamine tablets.
After being refused bail, Kevin Quill was removed as managing director of the company and was replaced by May. His computer was wiped of all his financial records, and his apartment was stripped and rented out by his partners, wrote Drummond.
Quill was subsequently jailed for six years for drugs possession. The British Consul at the time, Deryck Fisher, wrote a letter, stating that the Assistant Police Commissioner Noppadol Somboonsap*(1) in Bangkok, had admitted that Quill was framed.
The Appeal Court judges, Seramee Sirimankarak, Sittisak Wanachkij, and Ariya Navintum ruled: “The defendant was doing his job as a journalist, making facts public for foreigners doing business in Thailand. There is nothing defamatory in what he wrote.”

Marwaan Macan-Markar, president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand said:“We welcome these two court rulings in favour of Andrew Drummond, particularly since the alleged libels involved were criminal offences under existing Thai law..
“The verdicts demonstrate a fundamental respect for investigative reporting in the public interest. This is a good day for journalism and the law in Thailand.”

Gordon May

Andrew Drummond’s original reports were printed in London and Glasgow, but James Lumsden, also a drag artist, chose not to sue in Britain but in Thailand which, he said, he considered his home, after the Bangkok Post printed two similar stories. Drummond was subsequently given two, two month, suspended prison sentences and fined a total of 80,000 baht.

The Bangkok Post ap0logised in print to Lumsden blaming Drummond for the alleged libels.

Andrew Drummond, an award winning journalist, from Edinburgh and educated at The Abbey, Fort Augustus said: “ I’m of course very pleased. My thanks must go to Steve Turner former President of the BAJ for his never ending support and encouragement and my colleagues on newspapers in the UK and their bosses who helped pay my expenses.

“I’m proud to say that there wasn’t national newspaper group in the UK which did not contribute and then of course there were the scores of individuals both there and here.

“The judgments in my favour will please the victims and their relatives, but they are small consolation for the devastation these people have suffered”.

‘There are obviously issues to be resolved”.

Link ‘Fighting for Justice’

Lumsden (centre) as himself with others, not themselves. Pic: Pattaya Times

Jim the fundraiser

Andrew Drummond: Meanwhile thank you to reader ‘x’ for pointing out this more up to date picture of Jim Lumsden. Here he is in January with Eugene Gallagher, President apparently of ’Tree of Life’, which is supposed*(2) to be a charity in the UK raising money in the field HIV. Eugene has just presented Jim with a dod of crystal for Jim work’s towards HIV and a cheque for a thousand quid to a local orphanage. As is usual among visiting UK charity presidents Eugene then went on to judge the ‘Mr. Body Beautiful Contest’ at the ‘Copa’ bar run by UK bankrupt Peter Storrow, where he donated another 10,000 baht to the Pattaya Gay Festival. *(2)I say ’supposed’ because the Charities Commission seems to know nothing about it and I can’t find it anywhere, but I’m sure it exists. I would want to know that if I were donating to the ‘Tree of Life’ that my money was going to more worthy causes than to buying crystal for one half of the so called ‘GayMacMafia”. Info on Eugene Gallagher welcome.

”(1) Police Lt.General Noppadol Somboonsap, ( now retired) regarded as a man of integrity by members of FRANC in Bangkok, kindly drove down to Pattaya to give evidence at my trial for which I remain very grateful, and also to guys like Dominic Faulder at the FCCT, and my gay friends down in Pattaya, who continually keep me informed”.

FRANC - Foreign Anti-Nartcotics Committee - basically a working, and a ’once in a while’ drinking committee, for foreign police, and customs liaison officers in Bangkok, which would include RCMP, FBI, DEA, Deutsche Bundespolizei, UK Serious Organised Crime Agency, Australian Federal Police, NZ Police, Swedish Police (representing Scandinavia) and others from Asia.

THE VICTIMS

Iain Macdonald a few days before his death. His mother made an affidavit

Kevin Quill, in and out of jail. British officials knew he was no drugs user

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

Published

on January 27, 2010

The Commission A good summary of the affair

. 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.

A bad dancer always has trouble with his balls - Pattaya

Published

on December 11, 2009

. 9 Comments

This is a blog only

b52clubpattaya Pattaya’s infamously dead pan local media, which faithfully follows their local police, have been slavishly reporting, the recent arrest of 11 Russian prostitutes in the B52 club complex in, according to the Pattaya Daily News, ‘Pattaya’s infamous Walking Street’.

The raids conducted by Chonburi Superintendent, Pol. Col. Worawit Waitanormjit, if your read the PDN, or Police Lieutenant Colonel Rangsalit if you watch Pattaya One TV, were carried out after police ‘acting on tip offs’ put the club under surveillance.

This club was just recently opened in a fanfare by Pattaya’s Deputy Mayor, Ronnakit Ekkasing. As Russian girls have been working in clubs in Pattaya for years and even dance in little glass booths on the infamous Walking Street (and on Youtube too) if the police have not noticed, they must be, well er…………….have been paid not to!

Actually the video put up by the Pattaya Daily News is hilarious. In it the girls seem to be taking the mickey a little bit.

They know what has been going on but evidently the Deputy Mayor noticed nothing untoward.

tolmachevy-sisters At the police station they burst into a rousing chorus of ‘Katyusha’, sung better here however by the the Russian Red Army choir and boyband Chelsea, and or here where you can boogie with the Tolmachevy child star sisters. Katyusha is a patriotic song,Russian women sending their love to the soldiers on the front line during the Second World War. Katyusha rockets were also the Soviets’ World War 11 World War II vengeance weapons.

The girls are are happily signing their confessions, and it looks like the new boss will have to send home for re-enforcements.

I rang the club and asked what the problem was. The woman on the end of the phone replied in Russian: “A bad dancer always has trouble with his balls”.

I am awaiting for some clarification.

Of monks, mama-sans, sex tourists and balconies

Published

on November 26, 2009

in Others

. 9 Comments

This is a blog only

Oh dear, I had a ‘little t(w)itter’ this morning. No not the internet thingy, but one of those little spasms of laughter enjoyed by the late British camp comedian Frankie Howerd.
giuliano02 This morning Geoffrey Giuliano , formerly known as ‘Ronald Macdonald’, sent me a clip with his latest starring role in another foreign made film in Thailand, this one made in Pattaya. He stars as the murdered foreigner but has lots of lines before his corpse is found on the street below a condo.
Now if the Thai Film Board are going to get upset about such documentaries as ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ which was ‘reality television’, ehem with a few little tweaks, then they won’t be happy with the fictitional ‘Monks and mama-sans’, produced by a chap called Lab Ky Mo.
Well I know Lab sounds more Burmese than British, but this is another British/American made film, and it’s got it all, go-go girls, massage parlours, and sleazy sex tourists cue ‘Geoffrey’ scripted as ‘Freddie the Farang’ plunging from balconies etc. Top marks to the casting director.
It’s a short film. In fact you can read the entire script by clicking here. First of all I should explain that Geoffrey and I are old sparring partners. I usually duck when he is around. His language can be loud, and he does not mediate his vocabulary.
The last time he was at my house his voice boomed across the lake, sentences liberally sprinkled with four letter words, or rather four letter words somehow linked into sentences, as I patched him through to a news editor in London.
He was once very famous. He is a former rock author, hobnobbed with the stars, had his own weekly radio show ‘Geoffrey Guiliano’s Roots of Rock’ syndicated across 60 stations, and probably still is an authority on everyone from ‘The Beatles’ to the ‘Rolling Stones’. “I know I am not your cup of tea,” he tells me, a limey. As a journalist I keep in contact because Geofffrey I believe is a story waiting to happen. It could be messy.

giulianopaint

Anyway several films have been based on his books including ‘his Paint it Black’ - The Murder of Brian Jones.
He has hours and hours of potentially explosive secret tapes of confessions of well known stars which have never made it to the light of day. Lawyers for Yoko Ono have been giving him a headache. I am keeping some of the tapes for him. I think a lot of people may have to die before these tapes are released.
Ironically, in an art imitating reality sort of way, much of that has been lost after he came to Thailand, and had a Thai wife, who will not realise what she has run away with. Had they stayed together I supect he would have ended up in the same way as the character Freddie the Farang, who he plays.
This is Freddie the Farang talking in the film to a young male tourist in Pattaya for the first time before Freddy himself takes the balcony plunge. You can watch it here

“Well, lemme tell you
something, - anyone out here who
is not a diplomat or working for
a large multi-national firm, is
in some way broken or running
away from something.

Geoffrey Giuliano in former years

They’re either running away from
themselves, ex-wives, child
support, or the police, IRS, or even running away
from success - me, believe it or
not, I used to be a corporate
millionaire… but I was 320
pounds and very unfulfilled!

And then comes:
“Freddie: Oh I get it, you’re looking for love
here? From a bar girl?
(scoffs)

You can’t buy love here, son.
You can buy a condo. And that’s
what a lot of guys do. They
come over here, fall madly in love
with a beautiful Thai babe in a
bar within 5 days of landing into
giuliano-beatles the country. Within a month
they’re married. But do these
fools really think these women
love them? The girls don’t love
them. Most of these women
already have Thai husbands, for
Christsake! But they call
them their brothers! Some of
them even have their ‘brothers’
live with them! Some farangs are
stupid enough to buy them a
$100,000 apartment. And then one
day, their ‘brother’ and maybe an uncle
and a couple of cousins come
around and toss them out the
balcony from the thirty fifth floor,
And the police just write it off
as suicide. It’s just another
ex-pat story. You can’t buy
love here, my friend…

Ouch. Anyway Geoffrey is not entirely reliable but there is a weird sort of ethic behind his motivation.
Why Ronald Macdonald? Well he was Ronald MacDonald for over a year playing Ronald in the ‘Ronald MacDonald safety show all across Canada.
After he quit he became a vegatarian and expressed concerns about companies “who make their millions off the murder of countless animals and the exploitation of children for their own ends” in a submission on behalf of the plaintiffs in the 1991 famous London McLibel case.
Mind you in between times he seems to have also acquired a job playing ‘Marvelous Magical Burger King in New England for the Burger King empire.
Cracking good training for his acting role as a large, ugly, sex tourist in Thailand.

Geoffrey - George Harrison

British woman ‘raped’ in Thai beach resort

Published

on November 17, 2009

. 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.

Briton arrested for third time on child sex charges -Thailand

Published

on July 22, 2009

. 7 Comments

Briton arrested for third time for child abuse as Britain’s CEOP faces criticism
July 22 2009

robert-horsman-wp A British property developer, whose family owned large estates in Ireland, has been arrested for the third time in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya for child sex abuse.
Robert Alexander Horsman, 45, from Ipswich, was first arrested in March 2006. Then in a high profile investigation called ‘Operation Naga’ led by Pimlico based CEOP, he was arrested again in Pattaya last December.
Today Horsman, a former public schoolboy from Ipswich, was in custody again in Pattaya 100 miles east of Bangkok on new sex charges involving a 14-yr-old boy, after it was revealed all ‘Naga’ suspects had been released on bail and a prime witness had disappeared.
Those arrested in ‘Operation Naga’ include another Briton, Malcolm Payne, 59, who formerly ran a gay bondage shop in London, who remains at liberty on child sex abuse charges.
Announcing the success of ‘Operation Naga CEOP chief Jim Gamble said at the time: “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.”
After CEOP officers left Thailand, Horsman and the other offenders including Briton Malcolm Payne, 59, the former owner of ‘Regulation’ in Islington, London, an American and a German were released on bail. A young boy in protective custody also fled.
Horsman was re-arrested on Tuesday after allegedly buying himself a 14-yr-old teenager out of a Pattaya male a-go-go bar called ‘Look’ in Sunnee Plaza, Pattaya . He was picked up after a complaint made by child welfare Supakorn Koja of the local Child Protection and Development Centre (CPDC) to the Children, Juveniles and Woman’s Protection Division of the Thai police.

robert-horsman-gone1 When he was first arrested in March 2006 Thaipolice alleged that he abused five boys aged 9 to 13 and lured them into providing sexual services by letting them play video games and buying them presents. But when it came to court in Pattaya no evidence was offered and he was acquitted.
Sudarat Sereewat, Secretary General of FACE Fight Against Child Exploitation Foundation of Thailand said: “ Operation Naga was not the quite success that was claimed for it. These cases will always go wrong if they are not constantly monitored. Somebody has to watch the watchers”.

“Horsman was subject to special monitoring because of the wealth he had and what he could do with it”.

Horsman, originally from Saxmundham, Suffolk, grew up in Ireland. He has a work permit in Thailand to run a property business for a company based in Tullow Fethars, Tipperary where his family had large land holdings including hundreds of acres near Ballingary. He attended Headfort Preparatory School in Co. Meath.

CPWC - The Children’s and Woman’s Protection Division of the Thai police Region 2, operates out of Banlamuang and independent of local police but with the same top structure .

CPDC- is operated under the auspices of FACE. Many foreigners in Pattaya are monitored by this agency.

CEOP - Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection agency operates not under Scotland Yard but the Serious Organised Crimes Agency (SOCA) , a blend of police, government intelligence, and customs investigators.

Operation Naga: This operation was put into operation on December 11th last year. The CEOP press release at the time is here.

On December 22 2008 after CEOP officers had returned to the UK the Bangkok Post published a report by Wassayos Ngamkham. Thai police were quoted as saying that the most important target, a Brit had escaped arrested during the operation.

”It’s an organisation deeply involved in the sex trade with a British man as the mastermind,” Pol Lt-Col Panya said. ”He contacts customers through a website and has a Thai transvestite procure children for customers, most of whom are Europeans who have businesses in Thailand or retirees who have settled here.”

*: While CEOP faces some criticism, the unit cannot control what happens to suspects after arrest abroad and in this case when they enter the Thai justice system. CEOP is still the best bet for Britons to contact if they know of other UK nationals abusing children in Thailand or anywhere abroad.

*Sunee Plaza is renowned for the availability of young boys both in the bars and in the street. Nevertheless to actually operate the bars owners have to pay monthly fees to the local police. Bar are periodically closed down and the ‘Look a-go-go’ was raided this week coincidental with this arrest.

CEOP contacts are here:

Gangland Britain in Thailand - A hired assassin in Pattaya

Published

on June 24, 2009

. 2 Comments

This is a blog only
Soi Yodsak or Soi 6 in Pattaya is a small street but it has its named carved out proudly on the city’s stone of infamy. Some say, with tongue in cheek, that is the British equivalent of ‘Lover’s Lane’.
It’s a street of ‘short-time’ bars and always seems up for discussion on a website called ‘PattayaSecrets.com’ run by a Briton.

Sex tourists, or ‘mongers’ as they call themselves on the website, photograph their ‘purchases’ and post the pictures on the site’s ’Trip Report’ forum. Pattaya Secrets in turn is a major sponsor of ‘Pattaya One News’, a local television news channel of sorts, which is run by another Brit who is in turn the Group Leader (Gruppenfuhrer) of the black clad westerners in the Pattaya Tourist Police Volunteers, who in turn have been used to investigate Uzbeki prostitutes breaking Thailand’s strict indecency laws. Oh, anyway I think we all get the picture here…

Like the building society Halifax bar's motto is a 'Little Extra Help'

Now and again the Pattaya Police raid Soi Yodsak, ignoring the girls saying: “Come inside me please!”, and exclaim in apparent shock that sex-bars are operating there. The items of proof, they declare, are the mattresses, condoms, etc in the rooms upstairs. The bar owners put up with the raids stoically, pay their dues, and its back to business as usual, as they lay out the mattresses again.
henryskydive Anyway it is to this street in 2002 that Robert Henry, 42-yr-old British career villain, decided to set up a cover for his other businesses.
He invested in a skydiving company called ‘Siam Air Sports’ (SAS) with a ‘former SAS man’, Briton Ron Loveridge.
Unlike a large number of foreigners in Pattaya who claim they are ex-SAS, but are really on UK social security payouts, Ron was actually appeared to be the full ticket at least according to ‘Middy’ Campbell, former head of security at the British Embassy in Bangkok, and a former Parachute Regimental Sergeant Major. (One reader of this site claims he was Royal Corps of Transport but they are not known for their parachuting skills).
Their ‘airport manager ‘was a chap called Paul Cryne, then 55, whom I guess mowed the grass and put up the windsock on a piece of farm land they were using out of town. It certainly was not one of the official airfields in the area.
henrycrash Ron had acquired a Brittan-Norman Islander aircraft, but the business went flat after the plane crashed shortly after take-off on one of its early trips. Luckily no-one died. The Thai pilot had taken off on full flaps, something not good if you are trying to attain airspeed.
Soon the directors of the plane-less company were at each other’s throats. The Skydive Bar which they had opened up in the soi was the scene of some volatile altercations. Robert Henry, a career criminal, was not a happy bunny with his investment up in smoke. The insurance company would only pay half the claim and the plan was in Ron Loveridge’s name.
Back home in Coventry Henry had switched between credit card fraud and drugs. He was a member of a well known criminal family. His stepson had been charged with murder and he himself was the suspect in the murder of a boxing coach, Joe Montague, who had been gunned down outside his home on the outskirts of the city.
But in Pattaya, where Robert Henry was about to die, he also had a violent reputation. He had on several occasions beaten up his wife Wilai Chiewcharn and on October 4th 2003 just a few days before his own death he had beaten her up so severely that she had to be hospitalised. He also had many quarrels with local Thais, apparently severely biting the nose of one.

'Baileys'

(Wilai by the way was known as ‘Baileys’ among the British criminal fraternity, pronouncing it as ‘Byelees’ after the way she ordered her favourite drink).
Two days after she was hospitalised, Henry’s body was found face down in a swamp in Jomtien. He had been shot six times in the head. A set of motorcycle tracks led a trail away from the scene.
That’s how I came to know all these characters. Pattaya Police were, as usual and in their own inimitable way ‘hot’ on the case, which involved millions of Thai baht and they quickly pulled in the ‘airport manager’ Paul Cryne as being the most likely suspect.
Baileys claimed firstly that she had an affair with Cryne and that he was jealous of her husband. Then she claimed that she had received a call from foreigners to say her husband had been kidnapped.

Paul Cryne

Thai Police arrested Cryne. They said they had found DNA evidence linking him to Henry’s death in a BMW car which he had sent after the murder to be completely gutted and re-upholstered.
He seemed an unlikely suspect and the investigation was being conducted in part by a policeman I knew to be extremely suspect and greedy. Meanwhile the wife took over the company and all its assets and the poor ‘ex-SAS man’ Loveridge was left fighting a case in which, to put it the Thai way, the sugar had already entered the elephant’s mouth.
Cryne pleaded his innocence. He was a trained life-saver and diver, and even had a good citizen’s commendation from the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. He had an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for a 24 hour swim underwater, and he had certificates to show he had saved the lives of scores of people.
But then again he did finally admit that had been in jail too, for an offence of violence. Cryne did have a temper. Thai police said they believed the murder was orchestrated from England. Certainly a possibility but my money was on the wife.

Chief Constable's Award

Pattaya or rather Sattahip police failed to put together a credible case. Police in the UK who knew that Henry’s credit cards were systematically milked after his death, also thought he was probably a ‘patsy’ or ‘fall guy’..
When I went to Cryne’s trial, few of the long list of prosecution witnesses bothered even to turn up. Not even ‘Byelees’ their star witness. He was acquitted. He’s waiting to see if the prosecution will appeal -although, even if they do not, its not going to get him out of trouble
The only winner was the wife who got just about everything.
I was pretty sure too that Cryne was innocent and during the long process of Thai justice, when he could not leave the country and technically could not work, I even slipped him the occasional 1000 baht note, as did others.
(I am very cautious now about lending money to Brits in the sh*t. The first was a former Merchant Navy officer who had built up a 200,000 baht bill in a Bangkok hotel and five or so of us chipped in about Bt37,000 each. He no longer seems to recognise we even gave him the cash. The second time was to a Briton wanted in Australia for murder. He said he wanted to give himself up (as he was wanted for jewellery robbery in London, but he preferred Aussie jails) I thought I was stringing him along for the Aussie Feds to whom he had agreed to surrender. He was stringing me along!)

Graham Birchwood

Anyway, to come to the point of this story, the few baht I gave Cryne was obviously not enough. He may well have been innocent of the murder of Robert Henry but now he is wanted for the cold-blooded contract murder of a British housewife, an offence he is said to have committed while on bail on the Pattaya murder charge.
Earlier this month Briton Graham Birchwood was jailed in Britain for 32 years for the murder of his ex-wife, purely for the proceeds of her will, which she had made out to him and decided not to change.
Sharon Birchwood, a sufferer of ME (myalgic encephalopathy) was strangled with electrical cord at her home in Epsom, Surrey. Cryne’s DNA has apparently been found under her fingernails.

Sharon

Judge McKinnon at Croydon Crown Court said: “”There was a significant degree of planning and premeditation involved in bringing in a man from Thailand.”
Witnesses said that Cryne had arrived in Thailand and stayed at Graham Birchwood’s mother’s house then left again after the murder.

Paul Cryne has been banged up again in Thailand. If he is going anywhere it is to a British court on a murder charge, where the DNA evidence seems a lot more concrete.

So is there a moral here? I don’t know. But it has been a severe test of truth and judgment in Thailand and a filip for the ‘no smoke without fire’ school of thinkers.

More to the point. Have I paid a hired assassin?

Paedophiles fight back in Thailand

Published

on June 16, 2009

. 2 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, June 15
Two suspected paedophiles have had a former Thai police volunteer arrested in the Thai resort of Pattaya for harassment and blackmail.
The two paedophiles, a Swede and a Briton, whose names have been withheld, had both agreed to pay £2000 and £3000 respectively for indulging in under age sex with young boys.
One withdrew the cash from the bank. The second paid in full. But when they realised their blackmailer was not a normal policeman, they made an official complaint.
The arrested man Khun Wansanor said that he had worked voluntarily with police and grabbed their, apparently lucrative, list of names of suspected paedophiles.
Critics, however, say he would have had to have been given the list by a Thai police officer.
Thai police were at pains to say that Wansanor was not a real policeman. Police Major General Koson Paowes said: “He was impersonating a policeman but he has not had any police training.”
Nevertheless despite one or two high profile cases many arrested paedophiles in Pattaya, a resort known for its sex and sleaze, are eventually released after paying large ‘fines’ which go to local police. Those arrested claimed they have had to pay up to £15,000.
Among those released, have been two arrested in a joint operation with Britain’s CEOP last December which was described as a triumph of international police co-operation.
“The Royal Thai Police has demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders,” said CEOP’s chief Jim Gamble at the time.
One Briton, Maurice Praill, known as ‘The Ghost’ abused children for over twenty years, paying off police many times, before finally being sent to jail in January for 14 years after outrage was expressed by child protection agencies at the local police’s failure to keep him behind bars.

Irishman faces death sentence for drugs trafficking in Thailand

Published

on April 29, 2009

Link to Belfast Telegraph story

. 19 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,
Pictures: Andrew Chant Pictures
April 28 2008

Thomas McAuley after his arrest in Pattaya

An Irishman faces a death sentence in Thailand after being arrested today dealing in a cocktail of drugs in a beach resort.
Thomas McAuley, 48, was caught in a sting operation in the Thai resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok. Thai police say he was dealing in crystal ice, methamphetamines known locally as ‘yaa baa’ – the mad drug – and also opium and cannabis.
McAuley, born in Belfast but an Irish passport holder, sold drugs to teenagers in the resort city, said Police Colonel Somnut Jutkate. “He dealt the drugs from his Toyota Fortuna (SUV). After receiving information we put him under surveillance.”
Thai police used an informant, to buy a quantity of ice valued at 6000 Thai baht. (130 Euros £115)
When he was arrested McAuley had 109 grams of crystal ice in his possession, in two packets. Seven tabs of methamphetamine, 11.4 grams of cannabis, and 12 grams of opium. He also had a set of scales, and 60 bags for packing his drugs in.
He also had on him 52,000 Thai baht (£1107/ Euros 1,124) as well as the 6,000 provided by the informant, believed to be one of McAuley’s clients.
“He is a major drugs dealer in Pattaya, “said Police Colonel Jutkate. McAuley has been charged with trafficking in class 1 and 2 drugs.
The charge of trafficking in Class 1 drugs carried the death sentence in Thailand, although this is invariably commuted to life imprisonment for westerners.
But in a ‘War on Drugs’ initiated by Thailand’s ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2003 over 2,000 people were gunned down by police in what Human Rights agencies have called ‘injudicial killings’

If convicted McAuley will serve his sentence in Bangkwang Prison, Bangkok, known as ‘The Big Tiger’.
People convicted on drugs charges cannot apply for parole, or pardons.

Thailand blacklists British child abusers and sends them home

Published

on March 14, 2009

. 2 Comments

Link to Observer

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, March 14 2009
Thai Immigration officers said they would deport (Sunday) two blacklisted convicted child sex abusers who were caught in Thailand after following the trail of Gary Glitter.
Thomas Hadley, 58, from Petersfield, Hants, and Peter Nielson, 66, from Sheffield will be escorted on a flight from Bangkok after being arrested in the Thai resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of the Thai capital, on a warrant issued by British police through Interpol.
Thai Immigration Police Lt. Pol.Colonel Arnonnat Kamonrat said today the men, had a record between them of committing more than ten offences in the United Kingdom.
Hadley (left) had previously been sentenced in England to nine years in prison, for sexually abusing children, possession of child porn, and receiving stolen goods. Nielson (below right) had been jailed for seven years, both for sexual abusing children, and downloading pornographic images of children.
“They had also gone to Cambodia where we believe they had committed similar offences, “ he added. “We believe they intended doing the same here in Thailand.
“These men have been blacklisted from returning to Thailand ever again,” he added.
Because Thailand had blacklisted the men they have no right to appeal against extradition.
Thai Immigration Police had traced the two men first to the island of Sri Racha, off Thailand’s eastern seaboard, and finally to the Aree Apartment block in Pattaya yesterday afternoon.
They were in breach of notification and reporting requirements in the UK. But they had apparently left Britain comparatively easily.
Last August former glam rock star Gary Glitter was deported from Vietnam after serving a three year sentence for sexually abusing young girls there. He had previously been to Cuba, Thailand and Cambodia.
As he was transferring through Bangkok he attempted to make an escape via Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong authorities deported him back to Thailand. The Thai authorities deported him to England and he has now been placed on the paedophile register and blocked from travelling abroad.
Ends-

British pensioner, 78, sentenced to 14 years for abusing children

Published

on January 29, 2009

Link to Daily Mail ‘Former Catholic lay preacher, 78, jailed in Thailand for raping under-aged girls

. 0 Comments

“I will die in Thai jail” says man known to children as ‘The Ghost’

Other versions of this story by the same author

The SUN - Sick Brit jailed for child rape

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

A British pensioner known to street children as ‘The Ghost’ was today jailed for 14 years on two cases of child rape, after a history of child abuse complaints dating back 18 years
Maurice Praill, 78, a former Catholic lay preacher and video shop owner, was jailed for the rape of two under-aged girls, by the Thai Supreme Court.
Judge Charoenchai Assawapirya-a-nan confirmed a sentence imposed more than eight years ago.
He said there was no way the child victims could have lied because they gave so much detailed evidence including how Praill cut up his Viagra tablets and his use of KY jelly.
Praill, from Harold Hill, Essex, was led off to prison in the Thai provincial capital of Chonburi. “Paedophile I don’t use that word,” he said. “I pay to feel”
The girls were paid, he insisted.
He said he was stunned at the verdict and insisted that the elder of the two victims, aged 14, wanted to marry him afterwards.
“I expect I will die in prison if I do not get a pardon.”
Praill had been repeatedly arrested in Thailand for child sex offences, and released on bail, by the police and courts, since he sold his business in England and retired in the resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok in 1990.
He insisted before being led away in a blue prison bus: “I just like helping young people, sex or not, never mind, it was not the main thing’.
For the first few arrests in the 90s, local newspapers reported, he just ‘paid fines ‘at the local police station, another way of saying he paid off the police and victims.
But then Praill, the stepfather of former Irish International and Crystal Palace footballer Jon Goodman, was sentenced to 14 years in December 2001 on the rape charges of two girls aged 13 and 14.
He had been able to stay free by getting bail while petitioning the Appeal Court, which confirmed his sentence, then he went the country’s Supreme Court, a total eight year process.
Meanwhile Praill was arrested again in 2007 for the rape of two girls aged 11 and 9 and again given bail. That case has not gone to trial.
Then in March last year he was arrested in Pattaya for abusing an eight-year-old boy, and bailed again for the equivalent of £6000. That case too awaits trial.
Praill, who ran a video hire business in Chingford, Essex , called Phoenix Entertainment, was nickname Phi or ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance, said Sudarat Sereewat, Director of the FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) Foundation, and a member of Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee.
But local expatriates called him ‘Davros’ a fictitious villain, and creator of the Daleks, in the BBC TV children’s sci-fi series ‘Dr.Who’.
When he first arrived in Thailand Praill kept a diary, now with the FACE Foundation, which detailed his attempts to buy up schoolchildren as his ‘wives’.
But far for being their benevolent benefactor he wrote how he paid sums of just £2 and £3 for what he referred to as ‘my conjugal rights’ and baulked when they asked for more.
He also complained in his diary how British government were taxing his pension.
In February 1992 he was trying to lure a girl 12-yr-old called ‘Ann’ to his rented house but she left demanding money for her school. ‘She does not want to provide me with even minimal conjugal rites,” he wrote bitterly.
He fortified himself with the sex drug Viagra and Vitamin C capsules and trawled three locations in Pattaya, the Royal Garden Centre the Siren Bar and the ‘Made in Thailand’ market where he knew young girls hung out and found another 12-yr-old called Lek .
He wrote how he provided ‘lacquer’ for Lek and her friends , who sniffed glue in his front room, and of his desire to conquer her. But each time he tried she complained ‘I don’t want to’ or ‘It hurts’.
“She makes me horny. How long can I take this?” he asked his diary.
Then on Wednesday May 6th 1992 he announced in triumph that his grooming had been successful: “About 10 p.m. I have the best session ever. She seems to enjoy it.”
Praill went on to marry the girl in a Buddhist ceremony after she became 15 and he had paid the parents a dowry of £1000. Monks blessed and Praill later boasted: “A policeman played the organ at the wedding party.”
He had employed the girl’s parents as his household staff. But there may have been another motive for the marriage. In his diary he wrote how Lek knew a ‘virgin’ working in a local tropical garden and elephant t show tourist attraction, whom she could bring to the house.
His marriage lasted only three months before his young bride walked out to be with friends her own age.
FACE Director Sudarat Sereewat said: “The Supreme Court decision is good news for children in Thailand and for those fighting to suppress child abuse.
“Maurice Praill, I feel, should never have been given bail to continue with his abuses and interfere with witnesses and had already complained to the Regional Police. It was a difficult case because Praill would pay the families. Children are now safe from him.”
Abusers in Thailand have easily been able to play the system in the past. Police often negotiate compensation payments for the victims and for their own time. Parents do not want their children to go to court and would much prefer monetary compensation.

CEOP’s Thai coup - Now you see them

Published

on December 12, 2008

. 11 Comments

CEOP’s ‘Operation Naga’ provides hope for solving Thailand’s paedophile problem

Andrew Drummond, Bangkok – blog -Updated December 15 2008

Pictures: Andrew Chant

The raids this week by the Women and Children’s department of the Royal Thai Police together with officers of Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre have given some hope to those who are bored with repeatedly seeing child sex abusers getting off scot free in the resort of Pattaya.

CEOP’s Press Office worked through the night in London and Press Releases were sent out to all the media in the early hours of Thursday.

After the arrests of two Britons, a German and an American, CEOP boss Jim Gamble went on television extolling the fact that now nowhere in the world were child sex abusers safe from their clutches.

“You don’t know which police force in which country we will be co-operating with next.”

Operation Naga was clearly being promoted as an outstanding example of successful police co-operation. In fact CEOP praised the Thai efforts in every statement issued.

I’m all for publicity if it gives paedophiles the feeling that Thailand is no longer a safe country to operate in.

In an earlier blog I wrote that it was time CEOP got down and dirty in Pattaya. It has now happened….Nothing to do with me.

They have been operating in Thailand since November 17th. So you can bet your bottom dollar that they have a lot more names in their little black book. The figure of 50 has been mentioned.

But what is interesting is what they did not say, and no doubt continuing good relations with the Thai police and authorities had something to do with it.

Of the two Britons arrested one was Malcolm Henry Payne, aged , 59,pictured above, and the second was Robert Alexander Horsman. Robert Horsman? Wait a minute, that name rings a bell.

Yes. Robert Horsman , pictured left, was arrested in Pattaya in March 2006 and accused of indecency with five boys, one aged 10, two aged 11, and the others aged 13 and 14.

It was one of the ‘bang to rights’ arrests Pattaya Police are so fond of - treated very seriously at the press conference they gave – and like many of their ‘bang to rights’ arrests Horsman, from Ipswich, Suffolk, was acquitted in the Pattaya court system in April this year.

Convictions are a rarity. And the most famous convicted paedophile, Maurice Praill, 77, from Harold Hill, Essex, is still free despite being sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for child rape four years ago. (Authors’s update: Maurice Praill was finally jailed on January 28 2004 see here

He was arrested again while bail appealing his conviction. Where is his case now? Search me!

I first started writing about the release of child sex abusers in Chonburi Province 20 years ago. There have been classic cases. One of them even gave a newspaper interviews as to how much he had to pay to get off. Others have told me how much they had to pay, but they insisted they were innocent.

My initial reaction was outrage. I still am outraged but now this has been tinged with resignation. Having a young daughter now however focuses the mind.

The system is foolproof. Any criticism of a judge in Thailand carries a heavy jail sentence. It is not for nothing that they are addressed by lawyers as ‘tai taow’ ( an abbreviation of ‘ I am mere dust under your feet’). And you cannot necessarily blame the judge. There are a number of ways child sex abusers can avoid punishment in Thailand - see note at end of story.

In many ways the recent arrests are a two fingered salute to the Pattaya Police and authorities, though nobody in authority is going to say that.

For the British CEOP officers its a case of winning hearts and minds. The same policy adopted adopted by most foreign police forces here. They play the game with a mix of flattery and encouragement and a few beers to Thai police. It’s in the rule book.

But if you’re reading this, already sold on the generalisations that Thai police are dumb or corrupt, you would be wrong. There are some very smart cops out there capable of getting information in minutes. Straight too.

But the pressure of ‘passing the money up the chain’ is very strong and is in all provinces.

Thailand’s Immigration Department records would knock spots off many police forces for the information they have at their fingertips and the powers they possess.

The strange thing is, although child sex abusers in Pattaya are more cautious than 20 years ago, I never cease to be amazed about how open they can be about their activities.

Whenever a paedophile is arrested there are usually cries on blogs in Pattaya to have them ‘lynched’ or ‘castrated’ or worse. But these more often sound like the utterances of Pattaya’s prowling or resident ‘sex tourists’ which I guess gives them some sort of feeling of normality.

So, seriously, if you do know about British child sexual abusers in Thailand and those pictured here, and are cautious about approaching the Thai police, you should get in touch with CEOP where your information will be treated in confidence (www.ceop.gov.uk) .

Or, of course, I suppose you could call The SUN!

Although this week’s news is good, I think I would have to be an eternal optimist if I thought CEOP are going to change what has been standard practice in Pattaya since, well, the local police started to bother to arrest these people, rather than just taking the money and asking them to move on or owning the bars and trading in children themselves.

(The famous ‘Charlie’s Boys’ bar - now closed - was run by a local sergeant for years and offered door to door service of children driven like Pizzas on the back of a motorbike)

But hope springs eternal.

———————————————————————————

“The Royal Thai Police has demonstrated an unerring commitment to making Thailand a hostile environment for UK offenders.” Jim Gamble, CEOP, December 11 2008

—————————————————————————

Footnote: On December 22 2008 after CEOP officers had returned to the UK the Bangkok Post published a report by Wassayos Ngamkham. Thai police were quoted as saying that the major player a Brit had escaped arrested during the operation.

According to the inspector, the British man is a big procurer in Pattaya. However, on the morning of Dec 11 when police arrested four foreign paedophiles there, they did not find any evidence linking them to the mastermind”.

The newspaper was supplied with photographs by the Royal Thai Police.

I ,of course hope Thai police have not given the game away and that ‘Mr.Big’ has not skipped, but if he was not around for the December 11th raids, the chances are he has already.

How they get off

Child sex abusers are arrested so frequently in Pattaya, Thailand, that a cottage industry, has been built around the cases, from bail bondsmen, to avaricious lawyers, to some police ,who believe a financial penalty is the best solution all round, provided that they get a slice of the cake.

Abusers, not used to the system, may well be first approached by the bail bondsman. He offers to give the offender liberty, by say putting a land title down if the cases goes to court, and for this the defandant, pays a hefty whack.

Quite often the bail bondsman will have a contact in the police or judicial system and will continue negotiations which could result in any charges being dropped before cases get to court.

They usually warn the defendant that the longer he delays putting the cash down the more he will have to pay in the long run. If he can keep payments just to police then its going to be cheaper. Of course that’s not guarenteed and quite often the defendants still have to go to court and faces other financial charges.

Also lurking around are members of the ‘One-Stop’ shops advising foreigners on everything from visa, and land purchasing problems. They say they can do anything. One such person was a reporter on a local newspaper, who was also a local volunteer policeman, ran a one-stop shop, and would offer for extra fees to keep the matter out of the news. This does not work any more because he cannot control all the new newspapers and television channels.

But at one stage when he was interviewing defendants, on behalf of both the police and newspapers (armed with an electric stun gun for the former) and then fixing deals, he seemed to be all powerful.

There are also a number of lawyers who regular fix cases. And cases can be fixed in many cases. I know some of these lawyers but I am not going to advertise their services here. They have been known to threaten local children’s charitiy caseworkers.

1. For a consideration the police investigating officer can arrange to give such a poor performance in court that the defendant will be acquitted for lack of evidence. However somebody else in the judicial system has to be forwarned, or the judge may convict anyway.

2. Police can also screw up the case so much that the prosecutor may decide not to proceed with it. And needless to say the prosecutor can screw it up himself too.

3. Payment can be made to the victims. This is the Thai version of what Gary Glitter did in Vietnam to evade charges of the rape of two juveniles and often the easiest way out. None of the juveniles wants to go to court. None of the parents want their kids to go to court. So payments can be made as compensation, and provided the police are looked after as well, this is often seen as a good solution all round. Afterwards the children tend to go back on the streets again. If the childen are required to appear in court the evidence they give will not implicate the hands that have fed them.

This method is also easy because until recently nobody has wanted to shoulder the costs and responsibilty of provided protection for the victms in the long lead up to a trial and thus they and their families can be easily approached.

* In the CEOP cases described above I should note that CEOP say that the victims are all being ‘cared for’ by local social services and charities (Except for one child witness who recently ran away).

Thai rescue for stranded tourists - except for furious Brits

Published

on December 1, 2008

Link to Daily Express article

. 0 Comments

Thai crisis leaves thousands of tourists trapped at Bangkok airport

Link to Daily Telegraph article

Britons face long wait to get home

Link to Sky News story

Britons miss out on flights

Link to Daily Mail story

Thai protesters agree to lift blockade of airports after court sacks government

Link to The Standard

Britains may face more Thai chaos

Link to Daily Mirror story

Bomb blast kills one at airport

Evening Standard - Court sacks Thai government

thai-government-sacked-pm-to-step-down-after-being-found-guilty-of-corruptionj

Daily Mail - first flights out of Suvarnabhumi

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, December 1st 2008

The airlift of passengers trapped in the Far East took off in earnest last night as airlines came to the rescue of most nationalities - except for thousands of desperate Britons.

SAS had three flights for Scandinavians from Phuket, KLM came to the rescue of the Dutch. Air France provided a flight for the French. Jet Airways flew to the aid of the Indians. The Spanish provided military aircraft for their own nationals, Philippines Airlines went to the aid of Filipinas and the Italian government asked Alitalia to help their nationals.

Even Communist China has already got its citizens home on four rescue flights with just one more flight by China Southern Airlines to compete the job.

To add to that Thai Airways operated additional flights to Germany, China, Australia, Russia, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong ….but none to Britain.

But Britain had nothing on offer. Some of the luckier Britons were bussed 12 hours to Phuket to get a flight by Eva Air, the Taiwanese airline, who were offering one direct flight to the U.K.

So last night hapless Britons, many of whom had been trapped in Thailand since last Tuesday when anti-government forces took over Bangkok’s two airports, joined the long queues at U-Tapao airbase, 130 miles east of Bangkok, in the hope of getting home via another country.

The only other alternative was to get down to the island of Phuket and hitch a ride on one of three Quantas airbuses to Singapore where the Britons, were told they could wait for a flight to London. Quantas runs code share flights with British Airways.

Last night at U-Tapau airport Briton Neil Lindsay, 53, queuing miserably to get a flight to Frankfurt said: “ I now know that to be British it to be a world second class citizen. “I’m in the check in queue with a Welshman. I have been here forty minutes and have not got inside the terminal yet. “There are hundreds of Indian and other nationalities and all queues seem to funnel into one small door.”

Mr. Lindsay, from Wade Bridge in Cornwall, who has been stuck in the Ambassador Conference hotel in the Thai resort of Pattaya since last Wednesday added: “We are stuck here without a hope, but all the Germans sent to our hotel have gone home already. The last went on Saturday. We Brits just keep getting bumped.”

Lindsay is among 121 Britons of 1,200 Thai airlines passengers who were bussed by airline to Pattaya, 90 miles east of Bangkok from the besieged Suvarnabhumi international airport last Wednesday. At least 7000 Britons are now thought to be stranded in Thailand out of a total of 240,000 tourists.

“It’s quite clear that Brits are well down the pecking order when it comes to getting home. I have not seen any British Consular officials, but the Aussies have been here in force and I know they have flown to Phuket too, and have been using their influence to get their citizens home,” said Mr. Lindsay .

“I’ve seen them so often I know the Australian Consular people by name. “The British group keep putting their names on the list and they keep getting bumped off. Thai Airways have told us we can take their flights to Frankfurt, and then we are on our own. But we still get bumped.

“To my knowledge no Briton has managed to get on any of the flights to Frankfurt which have left over the last few days from U-Tapao. “I have seen people going out everyday and coming back dejected in the evening.

“I have rung up the Embassy twice, but they just say sit tight. I’m not surprised the Foreign Office will not supply charter flights to get us out, there are too many of us!

“I had been holidaying in Thailand in Northern Thailand and was due to fly back last Wednesday morning. My flight was one of the first to be cancelled.

“But that does not account for anything when it comes to getting a seat out of here. There has been queue jumping for any number of reasons.”

The Foreign Office has refused to charter aircraft on the grounds that that the skies over the provincial airport were too busy.

“The key issue is the fact the two airports in Bangkok are closed and therefore you’ve effectively got planes stacking up and not being able to get slots. The situation is tense and we are monitoring events hour by hour,” said Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell.

But the fact that many other airlines are flying seems to contradict that view.

There is hope today the People’s Alliance for Democracy who want the government to step down, will decide to end their occupation of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in Bangkok.

The Constitution Court in Bangkok is expected to rule that the government People’s Power Party, run by Premier Somchai Wongswawt, should be disbanded for vote buying.

Most of the hate of the protesters is directed at Somchai Wongsawat, who has retreated with his cabinet to the northern Thai capital of Chiang Mai, and his protégé, Thaksin Shinawatra, his brother-in-law, who was ousted from Thailand in a military coup, convicted of corruption and recently banned from Bntain.

Thaksin Shinawatra, a brief owner of Manchester City Football Club, is believed to be directing the government from abroad and says he wants to come back and save his country.

Brits miss out on Thai flights - Sky News

Police re-arrest ‘The Ghost’ April 2 2008

Published

on April 3, 2008

. 1 Comment

Police re-arrest ‘The Ghost’ - April 2 2008

From Andrew Drummond
Bangkok
Wednesday April 2 08

A convicted British child-rapist was back behind bars in Thailand today after police revoked bail after angry protests by a child protection agency.

Maurice Praill, 77, nicknamed ‘The Ghost’ from Harold Hill, Essex, was sent to Nongplalai prison, Pattaya, after Sudarat Sereewat a member of the country’s National Child Protection Committee complained ‘on behalf of the children of Thailand’.

Praill had earlier boasted that a local policeman played the keyboards at his wedding to a 15-yr-old child bride in a ceremony blessed by Buddhist monks.

He will appear in court on April 7th on a charge of child sexual abuse with an eight year old boy where he is expected to ask for bail again.

Praill was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to 14 years in jail for the rape of two under-aged girls in Pattaya. But he never did time. He got bail to appeal against his conviction and when he lost his appeal in 2004, he was given bail again to appeal to Thailand’s Supreme Court.

He was arrested again last year together with three other foreigners and charged again with child sex abuse. In this case it was alleged young girls were delivered to foreigners on the back of a motorcycle. One of the alleged victims in this case was the daughter of Praill’s latest maid.

Praill was bailed. But the prosecution subsequently offered no evidence against him although an American was subsequently jailed for 16 years.

Then last month Praill was arrested for sexually abusing an eight year old boy. Again he was bailed, this time for 400,000 Thai baht (£6,411).

After he was released Sudarat Sereewat, also Secretary General of FACE (Fight Against Child Exploitation) protested to Region 2 Provincial Police, which covers the resort of Pattaya.

“If we can’t put this man behind bars to protect our children, who can we (have detained)?” she said.

Local newspapers in Pattaya have reported that Praill was arrested on allegations of child abuse even before 2001 but was released after paying local ‘fines’ at Pattaya Police station.

Shortly after his arrival in Thailand he went through a marriage ceremony to a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of a previous maid. The wedding was blessed by monks and a Pattaya policeman played keyboards at the party claimed Praill, whose stepson Jon Goodman played soccer for Ireland, Crystal Palace and Wimbledon.

Praill, said he was surprised himself that he got bail. Nicknamed the ‘Ghost’ by children who describe his appearance as scary, he said after his release: “It’s incredible. How can an alleged offender who has committed rape against two young girls on four separate occasions ever get bail for that? And how could he get bail again? It could not happen in the UK, but it happened in Thailand which is comforting for me.”

The British Government has spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on courses for Thai police, social workers, and court officials, on how to deal with child sex offenders.

Most courses have been preceded by receptions at the Ambassador’s mansion.

Thai police played the keyboards at my wedding to child bride - says child rapist

Published

on March 23, 2008

Child rapist ‘The Ghost’ arrested again - Daily Mail

. 2 Comments

Thai policeman played the keyboards at my wedding to under-aged girl, says convicted child rapist - March 23 08

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
Police in Thailand said today they were reconsidering a decision to grant bail for the sixth time to a convicted British child rapist, known as ‘The Ghost’ who was arrested last week for abusing an eight-yr-old boy.

After protests from child-watch groups Police Colonel Khanisorn Yuwawhitaya, in charge of the Women and Children’s Division of Thai Police Region 2, which covers the resort of Pattaya, said he would send an order to police in Pattaya to ‘put things right’.

Police in the resort, infamous for its sex trade, have repeatedly released Praill, 77, from Harold Hill, Essex. He was last bailed on Wednesday for the equivalent of £6,500 within hours of his arrest in the shower of his home in Bongkot Villas, Pattaya. Maurice Praill 02 1 2

Praill, the step-father of ex-footballer Jon Goodman, who played for Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, and Ireland, was convicted in 2001 for the rape of two under-aged girls in the resort, aged and 11 and 12 and jailed for 14 years. He was bailed pending appeal and when he lost that appeal in 2004 he appealed to the Supreme Court and was given bail again.

Prior to 2001, Praill had been arrested three times on child sex allegations.
Each time he was released by Pattaya police, after paying ‘fines’ to local police, according to the local newspaper ‘The Pattaya Mail’.

He was arrested again in March last year with three other foreigners who allegedly used a ‘home delivery service’ for paedophiles in Pattaya. Young girls were taken on motorbikes to the customers apartments, police claimed.

One of the three, American Glen Allen, 61, was last month jailed for 16 years in cases involving girls or 9 and 11. But the case against Praill is no longer in the court after the prosecution offered no evidence.

(One of the ‘victims’ in the case was a daughter of another of Praill’s maids. She was not called to testify against Praill. Police claimed he abused her upstairs while the mother did the housework downstairs. Praill admitted knowing her however ‘from the day she was born’)

Maurice Praill, 77, known to his child victims as ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance, denied yesterday ever paying bribes to local police.

“I don’t need to. They never produce proper evidence against me, “ he said at his Pattaya home. “They are targeting me. It’s getting a little hot. But I could be dead before they get a conviction on the latest charge, and I am confidence I will win my appeal for child rape. I have one of the best lawyers in Bangkok. I’ve seen him on TV.”

“I like young people. All my girlfriends have been younger than me,” he added.

Two years after his arrival in Thailand in the late eighties, Praill married a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of his maid, who had been in his house for two years, in a marriage blessed by Buddhist monks.

“The parents asked me to marry their daughter. They wanted to secure her future. Her father was not too well. A policeman even led the band and played the organ at the wedding party,” he said yesterday, adding that the girl left him within the year to join her glue-sniffing chums. PraillM04 Wedding

“The latest charges are a set-up. This boy has been at my house but I sent him away giving him 50 baht. I sensed there was something wrong.

“The day I was alleged to have committed this offence my ex-wife, who remains a friend, was staying with me on the way to Borneo.

“Its members of a local orphanage who are setting me up. They have tried before and failed.”

Sudarat Sudarat of Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee and Secretary General of ‘The Fight Against Child Exploitation’ (FACE) said she had protested Praill’s release.

“Every time he is released children are in danger, “ she added.

The British taxpayer has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay for courses for Thai police, court officials, and child welfare groups, to ensure paedophiles are swiftly and professionally dealt with. The courses have often been preceded by parties hosted by the British Ambassador.

The courses were introduced after several notable paedophiles being tracked by British police were either released without charge or acquitted in court. The most recent courses were run by Britain’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) which will shortly host more visits by Thai police to the U.K.

Added Sudarat Sereewat: “We are trying to establish why Praill has been released so many times. Is it could be corruption? Is it incompetence. I would not like to say either without proof. But police have now said they would withdraw the bail.”

FACE are in possession of a diary allegedly written by Praill in the early nineties, five years after his arrival in Thailand after retiring from running a video hire company in Chingford. Maurice Praill Diary

In the diary he describes how he paid children for sex by paying their school fees or buying them glue or simply giving them a few pounds. He describes his anger at their ingratitude when they refuse or when they do not perform to his satisfaction.

Left: A page from Praill’s old diary

This page describes a frustrating night at home with two young girls who are sniffing glue but refuse him. One says ‘ Dont want. It hurts’. ‘How much more can I take?’ complains Praill. The following morning he reports a girl ‘won’t touch it let alone smoke it’. But he reports happily at the end he has succeeded and had the best session possible.

‘And she seemed to enjoy it - at last’

Maurice Praill denies he has kept a diary.

LINKS

Paedophile arrested for sixth time - Irish Independent

This article was updated on March 24 2008

Scandal as ‘child rapist’ released on bail again in Thailand - March 20 08

Published

on March 20, 2008

British paedophile ‘The Ghost’ accused of child rape ‘three times’ is arrested AGAIN in Thailand - Daily Mail

. 0 Comments

Stepfather of ex-soccer star accused of abducting Thai girls - Irish Independent March 21 07

Sixth arrested for convicted paedophile - Irish Independent March 19 08

From Andrew Drummond, Pattaya

20th March 2008

The most notorious British paedophile in Thailand walked free from a police station again today after being granted £6,500 bail for the alleged sexual abuse of an eight year old boy.

Maurice Praill 02

Maurice Praill, 77, formerly of Harold Hill, Essex, was arrested yesterday while already on bail for two other child sex offences. But he has been arrested in Thailand numerous times and been released.

Police in Pattaya said today they raised the bail to the maximum amount allowed under law but Praill, known locally as ‘The Ghost’ was able to meet the fee. They declined to discuss why he was given bail at all.

Two years after his arrival in the late eighties, Praill married a 15-yr-old girl, the daughter of his maid, in a marriage seemingly blessed by Buddhist monks. The girl fled after three months.

In December 2001 he was convicted of the rape of two young girls, but the formal charge only came after a series of arrests in the resort for which he was released after the local press reported he had paid ‘fines to local police’.

But after his conviction he was immediately released on bail, and when he lost his appeal in 2004, curiously he got bail again to appeal to Thailand’s Supreme Court.

In what child protection agencies describe as a ‘scandalous state of affairs’ Praill was arrested again last year for abusing two girls aged 9 and 11 at his condominium in the resort but within two weeks was out on bail again of £8000.

Child welfare agencies have long believed that a fund exists subscribed to by an international paedophile group to pay ‘costs’ for members arrested in Thailand

Praill was arrested at his new home in Bongkot Villa, Pattaya, after a police surveillance team saw an eight-yr-old boy being delivered to his home in a motorcycle side platform, normally used by the driver for transporting goods to market.

Thai police were called in after a member of the Child Protection Centre passed on complaints from the parents of the eight-year-old boy.

Praill, who was previously arrested for abusing young girls, had now turned to young boys, said Police Colonel Khanisorn Yuwawithaya, who led the latest investigation.

The police had been contacted by Supakorn Noja, of the Pattaya Child Protection Centre, said Commander Kanisorn. “We formed a team and conducted surveillance. We witnessed the eight year old boy being delivered to his house. We arrested Praill when he was in the shower at his home in.”

Sudarat Sudarat Thailand’s National Child Protection Committee described the Praill case as ‘scandalous’.

“He could have been abusing our children for twenty years yet nobody has put him behind bars. I am shocked they have let him go again.

”We have spoken to some of his child victims. They call him ‘The Ghost’ because of his frightening appearance.”

Britain, she added, had spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on much publicized projects accompanied by Embassy cocktail parties to educate the Thai police and justice system how to deal with child sex offenders.

“This makes those efforts look very weak. The Thai justice system will have to take more notice of the safety of the victims and possible future victims. He should never have been given bail. Paedophiles are repeat offenders,” she said.

Praill ran a video hire company called Phoenix Entertainment based in Chingford, Essex. His stepson footballer Jon Goodman, was capped for Ireland and also played for Millwall and Wimbledon. He is believed now to have cancelled all contact with his stepfather.

Praill’s lawyer, Nitiwat Pattanasarn, said: “Maurice Praill denies the allegations against him.

At his home in Pattaya after being freed Praill said: “It looks like the police are targetting me. I blame the child welfare agencies for targetting me. They are setting me up. Yes I like young people. I have always had younger girlfriends.

Picture: Maurice Praill at his wedding to the daughter of his maid. He paid 40,000 baht. Then about US$1000.

A second Briton, named a Ronald David Wiener, aged 59, was also relased on bail in Pattaya for sodomy in connection with another eight year old boy, who was playing on the beach while his parents ran a food stall. Wiener, from London, allegedly offered the boy the equivalent of £12 to go with him The cases are not connected.

Police said he willingly admitted the offences and came to Pattaya because he was told he could find young boys there. They also took away a number of pornographic videos of young boys having sex.

It all went tits up! Nov. 20 2007

Published

on November 20, 2007