Thai policeman gets life for murder of British couple

A Thai policeman was sentenced to life in prison today for killing a young British couple last year following an argument at a restaurant in Kanchanaburi - the resort town made famous by the bridge over the River Kwai.

Judge Dilok Boonthawinat first sentenced Sgt Somchai Visetsingha to death, but immediately reduced the penalty to life behind bars because he had co-operated with the court, had a good police career record and originally confessed to killing Britons Adam Lloyd, 25, and Vanessa Arscott, 24.

Somchai later denied involvement in the crimes.

“No form of punishment will ever bring our children back,” Lloyd’s father said at the courthouse after following the proceedings with a translator and other victims’ relatives.

“We trust that the sentence given to the butcher will be served in full,” Brian Lloyd said, adding that an appeal of the verdict could drag on for years. “He showed them no mercy and cannot expect us to give him any mercy.”

Somchai was jailed after the verdict and was to be taken to prison outside Bangkok, a court official said. His lawyer, Sukawi Saengpao, said he planned to appeal, but would not seek bail yet.

The judge said witnesses at the trial agreed that events leading up to the September 9, 2004 slayings involved a pot-midnight argument between Lloyd and the policeman at a restaurant in Kanchanaburi, about 70 miles west of Bangkok.

Photos from Arscott’s camera later published in the British media showed the policeman and couple had been on friendly terms, with one photo showing the anti-drug agent kissing Arscott on the cheek.

A man escorting Somchai out of the courthouse after the verdict shot an irritant spray at several journalists, in a reminder of the climate of intimidation that surrounded the trial, in which several people reportedly were reluctant to testify out of fear of the defendant.

Police did not intervene. No one was seriously hurt.

Somchai had been granted bail during the trial even though he was a fugitive for about a month before turning himself in. Prosecutors opposed bail because they feared he might intimidate witnesses.

Corruption is widespread in Thailand’s police force, and officers accused of crimes often go unpunished.

When the judge read his lengthy verdict, the handcuffed policeman sat with eyes downcast.

In his original account – which Somchai later said was given under duress - the policeman said he shot Lloyd in a rage after the Briton spat in his face, but that he had not intended to kill Arscott, whom he unwittingly hit with his car as she tried to stop him from fleeing. He said he stopped his car and shot her in a panic.

Somchai later testified that he did not kill the tourists, but Dilok said the court had accepted his original confession.

“Overall, we feel that justice has been done,” the murdered woman’s father, Graham Arscott, said in a statement read at the courthouse. “We feel that this verdict recognises the cold-blooded and callous way he ended our children’s lives with as much compassion as would be shown a rabid dog.”

Somchai changed his version of events after the court retained murder charges against him – which carry the death penalty – rather than reducing the charges to non-capital crimes as Somchai had sought.

In his revised version, Somchai claimed that one of his informants had carried out the killings against his wishes.

The attack on journalists after the verdict was witnessed by several uniformed police who failed to intervene. Local reporters said the attacker, who apparently used pepper spray, was a plainclothes policeman.

Tourists go to Kanchanaburi for its natural beauty and to see the bridge over the River Kwai, where Japanese troops built a railway using Second World War prisoners. The bridge was made famous in a 1957 film.