Brit gets FRACTURED SKULL for trying to break up fight
A British man has been left hospitalized in northern Thailand after he tried to break up a fight in Pai, Mae Hong Son.
Luke Benjamin Thornton, 37, tried to stop a fight between several local men and some tourists and was beaten unconscious with a wooden club and kicks by a pack of Thai men.
The men have now been caught. They said he shouldn’t have interfered in a fight between grown men – so he needed to be taught a lesson.
The incident happened in the street in Pai on May 20th. Daily News reported that a group of tourists were in the road when some drunk Thai men arrived on motorcycles and an argument developed outside Pai Withayakhan School.
The Thai men had been trying to get by and there had been a collision.
The argument turned into a fist fight. Mr Thornton went to help the tourists and was then set upon himself.
His Thai wife Saifon Petchkrajang, who went to the media for justice after the attack, told reporters that he had raised his hands in a wai to appeal for his life.
But he had been kicked and beaten unconscious and left for dead as the gang fled the scene.
He was taken to Chiang Mai Ram Hospital with a fractured skull and eye socket and other facial injuries.
He was still in hospital and suffering from double vision when he was visited by Pol Col Suwan Tenphitak of the Mae Hong Son provincial police and a Pai police officer.
Saifon claimed that relatives of the attackers had been in touch to threaten the victim not to prosecute – or their lives would be in danger.
Daily News later reported that Pai police had arrested three men. One had a name that indicated he was probably a person of mixed race.
They are: Anuphon Kongpithee, 35, from Lampang, Saenpetch Robert Porter, 29, from Chiang Rai and Kantapong Kongphaka, 23 from Trang. A weapon was taken into evidence.
They have admitted their involvement and face charges of assault causing grievous bodily harm.
They told police that the victim should not have interfered as it was none of his business. So they taught him a lesson for interfering.
Daily News called it a brazen attack on a foreigner that had damaged the image of Thailand.
