Thread: Brit dad in Thai jail after he's attacked in street

Dad 'facing jail in Thailand' after gang 'smashed his eye socket with nail-embedded sticks'

A Weston-super-Mare dad says he is facing jail in Thailand for “fighting back” as a gang allegedly cracked his skull with nail-embedded sticks.

Luke Thornton, 38, told Bristol Live he was kicked and punched in the face, put in an “MMA-style chokehold” and repeatedly knocked out in an attack by three bikers.

CCTV footage, which can be seen at the top of this page, shows the incident which took place while Luke was on holiday in the small town of Pai on May 20.

The air conditioning engineer, who has three children aged from eight to 14, suffered horrific injuries which led to doctors surgically removing his left eyeball and reinserting it so he could regain vision.

But Luke claims Thai authorities then charged him with an unknown offence and placed him in a “disgusting” cell before he was bailed. He has been warned of a possible jail term.

He said: "They are saying it was a fight, but it clearly wasn’t. I was attacked and I threw a couple of punches in self-defence. Now I’m stranded in Thailand.”

'We were just chilling'
Luke got together with his Thai wife Sayforn Phetkajang four years ago, when they met in a Muay Thai boxing camp where she was his trainer.

He said: “I go to Thailand all the time. Any time I can get, I spend it with my wife. At the end of April I flew over for a holiday with her.

“We were renting a bungalow in Pai. On the night of May 20, she stayed in and I went out for the evening.

“It must have been about midnight. I was sitting in the road with some friends I had met in bars.

“It was stupid of me to sit in the road, but everyone in Pai does it. We were just chilling.”

Luke says a gang of three men in their 20s rode up to his group and started revving their motorbikes.

“We put our hands together like we were praying,” he added. “It was a sign of respect, telling them we would get out the way.

“But they started hitting out at my friend, so I tried to pull him away. This made them angry and they attacked me.

“They had wooden sticks with nails pointing out. They were screaming they were going to kill me.

“I could believe what I was hearing. They punched me in the face and the back, they kicked my legs and smashed my face with their sticks.”

Luke says he was on his knees when one of the men got him in an “MMA-style chokehold”.

“I lost consciousness and then when I woke up again, they knocked me out with a kick to the head," he continued. "This happened two or three times.

“At one point they picked me up and dragged me across the road, my face scraping along.”

Luke claims the 40-minute attack came to a head when he heard one of the men say: “Where will we put his body?”

He told Bristol Live: “I just kind of accepted that was it for me. It was that scary.

“I ended up getting off the floor and running away. I could just about see through the blood in my eyes, but it was double vision.

“I stumbled into a hotel’s reception and got them to call an ambulance.”

Badly concussed, Luke was taken to the local hospital but refused treatment.

He said: “I was telling the doctors, ‘Don’t do anything to me, I need to see my wife.’

“I made them take me back to the bungalow because I thought she would be worried about me.

“She was in shock when she saw me and took me right back to the hospital, where I had 40-something stitches.”


More here:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/b...-after-3236494

Pai again? Definitely not ever going to be on my visit list.

I was sure it was gonna say Pattaya.

Isn't that where Luigi hangs out?

Pai does seem to attract some wrong 'uns - likely a very nice place otherwise.

Innocent Brit just randomly gets attacked in middle of night, runs way from hospital. Yeah, this sounds true.

Thought the video is brutal.

ahh, yes... TAT workin' on their next "Visit Thailand, Land of Wonders" video promotion.


Now, what recourse does Luke Thornton have? It's pretty apparent he has strong video evidence in his favor. Is there anyway he could pursue damages?

Originally Posted by Neverna

Luke claims the 40-minute attack

err..... The video looked like 1 minute to me.

Originally Posted by Neverna

“She was in shock when she saw me and took me right back to the hospital, where I had 40-something stitches.”

What happened to the:

Originally Posted by Neverna

suffered horrific injuries which led to doctors surgically removing his left eyeball and reinserting it so he could regain vision.

Luke claims the 40-minute attack came to a head when he heard one of the men say: “Where will we put his body?”

I also doubt the holiday maker understands Thai well enough to understand that.

Sounds like there are some holes in his story, unprovoked attack with such high level of violence, friends' (lack of) reaction... really? Whatever the beef may be that of course doesn't justify such beating...

Not surprised by Pai Police reaction thought, crooked to the core there...

I know Pai is quite on the beaten track when visiting the north but it looks like they take the expression to the letter...

Originally Posted by Farang Ky Ay

Sounds like there are some holes in his story, unprovoked attack with such high level of violence, friends' (lack of) reaction... really? Whatever the beef may be that of course doesn't justify such beating...

Not surprised by Pai Police reaction thought, crooked to the core there...

I know Pai is quite on the beaten track when visiting the north but it looks like they take the expression to the letter...

Pai hasn't been off the beaten track for some time now.
The Farang-inspired "development" over the last decade + is quite depressing and ugly.
Not the quaint mountain paradise any longer.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Pai hasn't been off the beaten track for some time now.

Yeah, that’s what he said.

But for you even a bunch of Thai yobs beating up a foreigner is somehow at least partly the fault of foreigners.



So in conclusion...foj.

Pai is a tourist ghetto. Has been for 15 years.

Story sounds embelished.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Pai hasn't been off the beaten track for some time now.
The Farang-inspired "development" over the last decade + is quite depressing and ugly.
Not the quaint mountain paradise any longer.

Yes you misinterpreted my post, it's well ON the beaten track...the city is (or was, as I haven't been there for 6/7 years) quite attractive to Thai tourists due to the romantic atmosphere (real or fabricated whatever) and the number of set ups prone to photo-op the various venues propose...selfies all over FB/Instagram to boast to friends, the recipe for "success".

Originally Posted by cyrille

So in conclusion...foj.

It's the only sensible one.