About my arrest
Immediately before my arrest I had been living and working in
My wife, No sorry!, (girlfriend at that time) and I had started and built up our own Real Estate business, in the beautiful southern island Koh Samui. The business was doing extremely well and expanding rapidly.
I had just finished converting part of the house we rented into a Real Estate office, so we could both work from home.
We had just got the news confirming “Lek” (my girlfriend) was pregnant. We where both so so happy and everything couldn’t have been better, we were planning to marry traditional Buddhist style at the temple in the forthcoming months.
Lek had just left to her mother’s home in the north of
It was an extremely busy time and an imminent Land sale meant I had to stay behind and finish this sale before re-joining Lek at her mothers in a few days time.
Police came to our house, searched it and found (20 grams of marijuana), (11 amphetamine tablets with a purity of 0.2 grams), (14 ecstacy tablets with a purity of 1.4 grams) and (24 grams of heroin pure)
The marijuana, amphetamine and ecstacy were mine for my own personal use.
The 24 grams of heroin was left behind by a so called friend, stupid very stupid of me I know!
It’s pointless to explain or argue the circumstances of the heroin now!, it was in my house and I had no option but to accept that. I told the police the heroin was also mine, to deny it would have only made things worse.
The police ransacked our house stealing almost everything that wasn’t too big or nailed down, I was terrified and helpless to stop them, and once they found the drugs they just went out of control.
Thank God! Lek had already left to her mothers, as Lek knew nothing of my recent closely guarded secret, my drug use!
I was immediately escorted by 2 armed police wearing clothing stolen from my house, to the domestic airport on the island and flown directly to
Upon arrival at some sort of police headquarters a whole media circus awaited me, numerous T.V film crews from what looked like every possible T.V. channel in Thailand, together with a whole room full of 30 – 40 newspaper reporters.
I was forced to sit at a table with a Englishman who had been arrested in
A whole entourage of top brass Thai police standing behind us, smile for the cameras!
Look what a fine job we corrupt police are doing! “oops I shouldn’t have said that”!
You’ve all seen the scene before naïve Europeans drawn, humiliated, shocked, scared faces made an example of for the very often corrupt hypocritical regime. “Scape goats”!!!
I felt like I was having an outer body experience and this wasn’t, couldn’t be happening to me.
I next found out I had apparently been jointly charged with this man, also for the 760 grams of heroin found on him, even though I was 700 kilometer’s away from his place of arrest.
They charged me with manufacture of 760 grams of heroin. Crazy or what!!
This is about the most serious charge you can get in
An exact description of these events I have yet to write:-
The most horrifying experience of my life which leads into the most horrendous sequence of events you could imagine:- see other articles and newsletters!!
I still can not really comment on this man charged with me, because such comments could seriously damage any foreseeable appeals or even Royal Kings Pardon Petitions on my behalf.
Let’s just say the man was very helpful to the authorities in order to help himself to the extent of blatant lies about me.
After the initial media circus, frenzy in fact, I was imprisoned for 12 days in filthy cramped conditions in a cell within a police station. On the 12th day I believe we were taken to court and remanded to a prison in
The other man and I were separated and sent to different buildings, each in a sense a separate prison.
I rarely saw this man over the year and a half I spent waiting for sentence and so called trial.
The 6 weekly British Embassy visits to me and the occasional mention in a brief court appearance building up to the trial, were the only times I saw this man.
I was shackled on arrival at this prison and I spent 6 months in those shackles before they were finally removed.
In those initial first 6 months my weight dropped alarmingly from 85 kilograms to 63 kilograms.
Conditions within this prison are best described as evil and inhumane.
Lek still pregnant during most of that time traveled over 1000 kilometers every week to visit me, every week without fail she ensured I had food she would buy from the outside prison shop. I would never had survived those first months without Lek! The effect my arrest and national news coverage had on my parents and immediate family in
All credit to them they all stood by me and Lek and supported us both.
After endless requests, paperwork, major dramas!! The British Embassy and the prison finally relented, and on
Not quite the traditional Buddhist style
With Lek and her mother, 10 guards 2 registration clerks present. No celebration or ceremony, but they did consent to removing my shackles for the one hour it lasted.
No time alone together and this was the first time I had met my Mother-in-Law.
The main thing was the marriage was legally recognized by British law so there could be no later dispute to our baby and his or her right to a British passport and citizenship.
I believe I’ am the only prisoner ever to marry in Bambut Pisset prison
We managed this only just in time as on
Months and months I pondered over a name.
A strange name to some of you but I wanted something different and something at the same time all so English and of home to me.
What more English than the grand old, strong oak trees where I used to walk my dog in the grounds of Bradgate Park Leicestershire
I love the name Oak and all it represents, (then and now)! Our little acorn (oak) will just like an acorn grow in to a big strong chap, (a huge strong Oak tree!!)
I didn’t even know Oak had been born until over a week after his birth. The prison failed to tell me despite the Embassy notice to them to do so.
Finally
Quite incredibly for a plea of guilty my life sentence and my 1 million 2hundred thousand fine were both reduced by one third.
End result, end sentence!:- 33 years and 4 months and the fine down to £11.000ss
Oh! Almost forgot the 20 grams of marijuana for this I received a 2 month sentence.
Full total 33 years 6 months eleven thousand pounds. For a mere 25 grams of class 1 drug and 20 grams of class 5 drugs.
A small mistake yet! Massive consequences.
The day after I was sentenced I was moved to the Infamous Bangkok Hilton (Bangkwang Prison)
I spent a further 3 years in the infamous Bangkok Hilton Prison before transferring to a prison in
See other articles for further information on my time spent in Thai prison, following the monthly newsletters of then and now.
Thanks for reading and please sign my online petition
By Steve Willcox
bravenet.com