Thread: Canvey man left in coma after beaten round head in Thailand

Canvey man left in coma after beaten round head in Thailand
16th April 2012


MrAyling before the attack

A Canvey man suffered severe brain damage and has been in a coma for five months after being brutally attacked in Thailand.

Paul Ayling, 47, had just dropped off his nine-year-old son at school near their new home in Hua Hin, Thailand, and was pulling away on a motorbike when he was jumped by two men.

One of them hit Mr Ayling over the head with a lump of wood, sending him into the coma he has still not woken from.

No-one has been charged with the assault, but his family suspect the attackers were hired after he refused to pay decorators who worked on his home.

Mr Ayling lived on Canvey for more than 30 years before emigrating to Thailand with his wife Justine and son Scott last spring. He was attacked on November 21.

He needed three operations in Thailand to reduce swelling on his brain and remove blood clots.

He was flown back to Southend Hospital a month ago and transferred to Northwick Park Hospital, in Harrow, last Tuesday (April 10).

echo-news.co.uk

I read about this on a Hua Hin forum a while back looking for info on something else. Sad story, set upon from some bushes while riding is bike rumours of the "more to this than meets the eye" variety.

yep , surprised it hasn't been mentioned previously on TD .

When I saw your post, I wondered if it was a different attack. You wonder what sort of quality of life someone could have (if any) after this sort of period unconscious. On his way back from school run too. For shame.

Originally Posted by Mid

No-one has been charged with the assault, but his family suspect the attackers were hired after he refused to pay decorators who worked on his home.

Without knowing the details about who was in the wrong I would be extremely worried about my own well-being if I owed Thais for work already completed and I was refusing to pay them.

For the son's sake I hope his dad recovers.

Fighting For His Life After Disputing Decorating Bill

the full story is here on andrew drummonds site.

Said Justine,42 : “The wallpaper had to be painted over because each roll was a different shade, and they left paint everywhere. The carpenter also botched the job in the kitchen and Paul had to fix it himself. My husband is a carpenter and kitchen fitter himself and is meticulous about his work. He withheld part of the payment, about £400, about one third, and had referred the matter to lawyers.”

But then she said they received an email unusually in word perfect English from the Thai contractor.

“It would be better for you to pay us and have this finished once and for all. If you refuse to pay us we have other means to make you pay but let us do the best and soft way first. Please also pay the carpenters as they don’t know how to play soft”.

She added: “I held Paul in my arms. He was covered in blood. His brain was spilled out. It is difficult to believe someone would do something like this for the equivalent of £400”.

Said Justine: “After the attack I saw the man who hit Paul just throw the piece of the wood down in the road. When police came to investigate they picked up, but did not wrap it up, and the last time I saw it, it was leaned against a cupboard in the police station.

"They never cordoned off the area to check whether either or both of these two men had been smoking or drinking while they waited."

All this comes as little surprise to expatriates living in Hua Hin, one of whom refers to the town jokingly as ‘Hua Hit Man’.

But without exception they will only talk off the record about local police and politics.

Justine wrote to her local paper wishing to pay for an advertisement for witnesses to the incident. She was quickly turned down.

This is the reply she got from the Editor, Gerard Mosselman who refused her advertisment:

“Writing critically about crime does not help Hua Hin. A former local foreign newspaper was closed because they criticised local developers and Thai Police.

“We are a foreign News Media who have permission to make local and international tourist , real estate, events and other news except ..criminal and political news.

“In addition, last week, an editor of a newspaper in Phuket was shot to death because he criticised publicly certain things he did not agree with. I hope you understand our situation. Publicising the deeds on your husband will , unfortunately, not reverse the brutal attack.”

There are of course no laws preventing the reporting of crime, but police in Thailand control the newspaper licences. Upset the police and editors can possibly lose their newspapers.

Originally Posted by Mid

yep , surprised it hasn't been mentioned previously on TD .

I think it has TBH. I remember reading the original story and as this is pretty much the only Thai based site I read I'm pretty sure it was here. Think the article/thread may have been talking about attacks on farangs in general, not solely on this case?

Jasus, fucked up for 400 pounds and the police are doing fukk all as usual.

Originally Posted by khmen

I think it has TBH.

doesn't show up in either search engine .

^Hmm...maybe I followed a link to the Drummond story or something then.