A Pattaya horror story

[Admin]

A Pattaya horror story
From ANDREW DRUMMOND,Andrew-drummond.com
2010-12-08

Naked and cuffed to the cell bars

These horrific pictures show a 53-yr-old Briton wasting away naked in a Thai police station and cuffed to the bars of his cell.
He is reported to have been there for three months, but certainly since November 23th, but nobody has sent him for hospital treatment. This is a police station in the resort town of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok. His luxury pillow is a plastic water bottle.

This man is under the care of police. He was found sleeping under cars in in nearby Jomtien and was found to be on overstay.

The man known to others purely as ‘John’ growls like an animal and has mental health issues. Sometimes he just sits and says nothing. It’s now known he has been deported from Thailand before for overstaying his visa. Thai police say he is unfit for court and do not know what to do with him.

They are awaiting on a decision from the British Embassy in Bangkok. But will, or should, the British government cough up for his treatment?

Unofficially Thai police say he has AIDs. That is why, they say, he is chained to the bars. It is to protect other inmates.

If however he is charged with an offence he should have appeared in court where judges could have seen his condition.

This man appears to be just one of the city’s casualties.

Full story: http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/12/07/a-pattaya-horror-story/

[boloa]

Not the first and deferentially not the last westerner to end up in this state. Pattaya does seem to attract them.Bit of a disgrace the British Embassy in Bangkok are dragging their feet,maybe someone should tell them he's a Muslim to speed things up ..!!!

[boloa]

Saved by an angel - Pattaya Brit in hospital
A Briton found languishing, naked, and tied to the bars of a cell in Pattaya police station has been saved by an angel appearing in the form on an expatriate British women living in Pattaya.
And after being scrubbed and clothed he has been taken to hospital in Bangkok under police supervision and now hopefully will be looked after until his deportation to Britain for overstaying his visa.

The dramatic development happened early today after the women read about the plight of the Briton on this blog.  She rushed to the police station to sort out the matter.

Tracy  xxxxxxxx, who runs the Mellisa Cosgrove Children’s Foundation said: “After seeing the pictures I was horrified. I could not let this situation go on. He looked like he was a concentration camp survivor.

“I spoke to the police chief and it was clear that they wanted to help but did not know what to do as he was really the responsibility of Immigration Police.

“I called up the Pattaya-Bangkok hospital and they sent an ambulance around. We cleaned him up, gave him some clothes, and he was given a medical check to show that he was alright to travel.

“I have accepted responsibility for him and will watch him and go with him to court.

“Just as he was leaving the local Honorary Consul Howard Miller turned up with other staff.  He said ‘Thank you for doing what we could not do.

“He asked what organisation I belonged to. I said the organisation that read this blog on the net.”

“If I had not seen this on your blog I really believe this man would have died. When I spoke to him he was quite compos mentes.  He looked up and said to me: ‘Oh yes, I know you from television. You do very good work’ but I had never seen him ever before.

“But then later he started talking about leprechauns and pots of gold.

“The police were very good. They even chipped in with some of their own money to help him on his way.

“I just want to say thank you.”

The Briton was photographed at Pattaya police station by Benny Moalfi, an activist and campaigner for prison and justice reform in Thailand who later contacted this site.

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/12/08/saved-by-an-angel-pattaya-brit-in-hospital/

[boloa]

A conspiracy of silence - a comment
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/12/09/a-conspiracy-of-silence-a-comment/
Britain’s Honorary Consul Howard Miller has taken a lot of flak here and on other forums over his performance regarding the poor Briton, who was shackled naked to a cell bar in Pattaya for an indeterminate period.
Well, it’s not that indeterminate.  We know the British Foreign Office have known about the man (who appears to be 47, not 53 as earlier stated) since November 23rd.
Howard Miller cannot defend himself.  He may be champing at the bit but Foreign Office rules dictate that he cannot reveal anything in British consular cases, except confirm what is in the public domain, even if the victim in this case were to give permission.
The post of Honorary Consul is poorly paid, but does come with a little bit of kudos I suppose, from those around you.  I understand there was an assumption on the British Embassy’s part that something had been done about this man and that he had already been sent to hospital.
At one stage I was told: “He is in the custody of Thai police and while there he is their responsibility”. But more significantly I was told by a Foreign Office official that I published this story it ‘would not help’ the situation.  That suggested things were in motion. When the FCO official was unable to say why, I took the risk.

In any event the hospitalisation did not happen, or if it was going to, a spirited British woman, Tracy, seized the day first, and with extraordinary wit, crashed through all barriers and found an immediate, if not permanent, solution to the case.

What a great Ambassador for Britain! But of course Brits should not have to rely on Tracy.
That Howard Miller does care about those around him is clear from his actions which were filmed in the documentary series ‘Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand’ when he was group leader of the Pattaya Tourist Police assistants,  or whatever they call themselves.
But perhaps that is part of the problem.  For many years Howard has deferred to those in authority above him, and those in authority have been police figures themselves.
It is possible that he may not be able to lay down the law with such people and say ‘You cannot treat a person like this!’
And then again he has another hat as Editor of Pattaya One News.  Are all the reporters in Pattaya blind? No of course not. Some are happy to publish humiliating pictures of foreigners in all sorts of states of undress to increase ratings.

But showing an emaciated naked man handcuffed to prison bars in Pattaya? No. Even my own stringer down there ran away from this one.

The fact is they are not going to write anything negative about the local authorities. So there we have it. Is this a conspiracy of silence? 

 Yes, by default.

[nookiebear]

This guy has been around the Soi Post Office ,Soi Yamoto area for a long time

[boloa]

This guy has been around the Soi Post Office ,Soi Yamoto area for a long time

Who   ......Howard Miller 

[nookiebear]

This guy has been around the Soi Post Office ,Soi Yamoto area for a long time

Who   ......Howard Miller 

No ,you dick, the guy who was locked up''''''''''''If you've been here any length of time you would have known where you could always find HM,EVEN MORESO WHERE HE CAN BE LOCATED THESE DAYS & EVENINGS