Thread: Burghfield Common OAP in Thai jail

Burghfield Common OAP in Thai jail
Linda Fort
June 05, 2009

A Burghfield Common pensioner has just been released after spending a month in a Thai jail cell with 70 other prisoners.

David Harris, 62, of Reading Road, was arrested in December after a fight in a bar when a man from Wales suffered a fractured skull.

He was bailed at first but last month he was put in the Pattya Remand Centre and only released when he was able to raise £2,000 bail.

He said: “It was horrendous. Words cannot describe how terrible it was. There were 70 people in the cell with me.

“At night we were lying on top of each other trying to sleep with an elbow in your ear or a foot in your face.”

He said one Thai prisoner was beaten to death for stealing cigarettes and another died of TB.

He said: “The prison is run by the prisoners. The currency is cigarettes and if you don’t have someone on the outside to help you, you would starve to death. The food is completely inedible.

“If you have cigarettes you can exchange them for cakes and other food.”

Mr Harris was kept supplied by an old friend who lives in Thailand and who is helping him fight his case.

He now lives in fear of being picked up by the police again and being sent back to jail.

He said: “You have to carry ID at all times in Thailand and the only ID I have is my passport and the authorities have it. If I had to go back in jail I just wouldn’t. I would kill myself first.”

He went on: “I am innocent but I haven’t made a plea yet. The trouble is that my lawyer tells me that if I plead not guilty and then am found guilty, under Thai law my sentence would be doubled. I could get anything between three months and 10 years.

“Another problem is that if I plead not guilty in November when my case comes to court it could be ages – years maybe – before the case is heard and I would have to stay here. But I want to plead not guilty.”

Mr Harris, who has two sons and a daughter, also fears he has lost his home in Burghfield Common while he has been in Thailand because he has been unable to pay the £10 a week contribution he is supposed to make for the rent.

The dad, who has been holidaying in Thailand since 2004, is currently living in a bar and relying on his pension and friends for financial support.

He said: “I never dreamt going on holiday could end in this kind of nightmare. It is a living hell.”

Wokingham MP John Redwood is taking up Mr Harris’s case with the Foreign Office.

He said: “I shall be contacting the minister David Miliband about Mr Harris.

He is out of prison at the moment and we want to ensure that remains the case.”

getreading.co.uk

FFS Where to start?

On holiday since 2004 ?

Originally Posted by Mid

“I am innocent but I haven’t made a plea yet. The trouble is that my lawyer tells me that if I plead not guilty and then am found guilty, under Thai law my sentence would be doubled. I could get anything between three months and 10 years.

Originally Posted by Mid

unable to pay the £10 a week contribution he is supposed to make for the rent.

I'm sure he's a very nice bloke and all that but WTF is he doing?

Highlights the risks of being involved with the Police in Thailand and its Mickey Mouse justice system.

It's all fun and games with the whores until you have to face reality in Thailand and the dangers of this corrupt and backward country become all too apparent.

David Harris, 62, of Reading Road, was arrested in December after a fight in a bar when a man from Wales suffered a fractured skull.

Grevious bodily harm, does he expect a free pass ?

Originally Posted by Begbie

Grevious bodily harm, does he expect a free pass ?

Doesn't say he did it though. Maybe he's an innocent caught up in the complexities of life.

How the fok he can whinge about not keeping his house though, is beyond me.

10 quid a week rent !

Neither the Embassy, nor his MP should be wasting their time on this wanker.

Contrast this with the thread about the englishman who was viciously assaulted and now complaining that his assailants aren't receiving just punishment. Now we have an englishman supposedly involved in an assault and he's complaining about being arrested.

Originally Posted by Begbie

englishman

Welshman. Makes a difference.

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Originally Posted by Begbie

englishman

Welshman. Makes a difference.

Also from his local newspaper

Teenager Thomas Fletcher sentenced for dog sex - News - getreading - Reading Post

Originally Posted by EmperorTud

Highlights the risks of being involved with the Police in Thailand and its Mickey Mouse justice system.

It's all fun and games with the whores until you have to face reality in Thailand and the dangers of this corrupt and backward country become all too apparent.

...or if you commit a criminal act worthy of your imprisonment.

Originally Posted by Begbie

Contrast this with the thread about the englishman who was viciously assaulted and now complaining that his assailants aren't receiving just punishment. Now we have an englishman supposedly involved in an assault and he's complaining about being arrested.

Can't see where he complains about being arrested, he's complaining about the barbaric prison conditions, which I think anyone would English or Welsh.

Originally Posted by crazy dog

Originally Posted by Begbie

Contrast this with the thread about the englishman who was viciously assaulted and now complaining that his assailants aren't receiving just punishment. Now we have an englishman supposedly involved in an assault and he's complaining about being arrested.

Can't see where he complains about being arrested, he's complaining about the barbaric prison conditions, which I think anyone would English or Welsh.

Comes to the same thing. In any case he's out on bail.

I have nothing but sympathy for this man, but my policy has always been to pay up and vacate premises at the first sign of trouble. Staying around to "watch the fight" is most unwise, whether in Thailand or elsewhere.

Years in Thai jail if pensioner can’t pay £11,000
Linda Fort
June 11, 2009

The Burghfield Common pensioner facing an assault charge in Thailand could go to jail for failing to get his legal paperwork in on time.

David Harris, 62, of Reading Road, must submit the paperwork by Monday or face the possibility at his trial in November of being assumed guilty.

He would be expected to pay in the region of £11,000 to his “victim” – a Welsh tourist who suffered a fractured skull.

If unable to pay, he would have to work off the sum in jail which would take eight-and-a-half years.

Mr Harris also has to find considerable sums of money to fight his case.

He needs just under £1,000 immediately to pay lawyers.

He has so far raised almost £2,000 in bail from friends.

Mr Harris has recently been released from a jail in Pattya.

He spent a month there in what he described as “horrendous” conditions of overcrowding while he raised enough cash to pay his bail.

The charge arises from a fight in a bar last December.

Mr Harris cannot leave Thailand before his trial.

getreading.co.uk

11 grand for a bust head seems somewhat at odds with the compensation a Thai got last week for being stabbed. What was it he got 30 baht? and that took years to get.Would think a stabbing about as serious as a fractured skull?

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Originally Posted by Begbie

englishman

Welshman. Makes a difference.

I've got a Welsh mate who says, "I've he'd won a gold medal at the Olympics they'd be saying he's British. Because he's done soemthing wrong he's Welsh."

Cheers

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Originally Posted by Begbie

englishman

Welshman. Makes a difference.

The victim was Welsh, not the assailant.

Years in Thai jail if pensioner can’t pay £11,000
Linda Fort
June 11, 2009

The Burghfield Common pensioner facing an assault charge in Thailand could go to jail for failing to get his legal paperwork in on time.

David Harris, 62, of Reading Road, must submit the paperwork by Monday or face the possibility at his trial in November of being assumed guilty.

whats all this pensioner nonsense. 65 is the age when brits (or taffs) take their pension. calling him a pensioner is just trying to elicit sympathy for the man.

too many of these "over 60 with attitude" type brits in thailand, a spell in chokey will calm the barfly down.

So, let me get this straight.

The 62 year old is the accused? Not just a bystander? And he's accused of fracturing a guy's skull? And now he's playing the impoverished, dim, frail, put upon OAP?

Should be interesting.