PATTAYA: Police are investigating the incident which saw them arrive at an apartment to find bloody scenes throughout. Officers took both marriage partners into custody. According to the 67-year-old Thai wife, both had been injured after she managed to grapple the household knife from her husband in self-defence.
Thai police in Pattaya are trying to determine the nature of legal proceedings to be taken against an elderly UK man and his Thai wife after both were taken in for questioning on Monday morning when police arrived at their apartment to find a bloody scene and both marriage partners suffering from injuries.
On Monday morning in Pattaya, police arrested both a UK man and his Thai wife for questioning after being called to a violent scene at their apartment in the early hours at 1.30 am.
There, they found 78-year old Charles Ratcliffe bleeding profusely with cuts to his head while his 67-year-old Thai wife, Wasana Karndee, was also found to be injured with slashes to both her hands.
Frantic calls from concerned neighbours
By the time police arrived following frantic calls from concerned neighbours after the hearing the ferocity of the activity in the apartment, things had calmed down but police found the living quarters covered in blood especially near a bed where a TV was still blaring.
Friends and rescuers tended to the injured couple
Friends and volunteers from the Sawang Boriboon Foundation, called to the scene, tended to the injured couple as they kept their distance from each other in a crowded area where police shuffled about and asked questions as they carried out their preliminary investigation.
A small household knife was recovered from a bin full of empty beer and soft drink cans.
67-year-old Thai wife told police that her husband’s temper had exploded and that he attacked her
The 67-year-old Thai wife gave officers a full account of what had happened. She said her husband had initiated the attack when he appeared to completely lose his temper.
‘We were shouting at each other but then he really lost his temper and tried to stab me with a knife. I used my hand to fend it away and I was cut,’ she said. ‘I was hurt and angry so I snatched the knife from his hand and swung it to keep him away from me, but he came towards me so I slashed it on his head. Then he started bleeding. He stopped attacking me because he was in pain then, I calmed down and called the ambulance.’
Both husband and wife were taken into custody
Police, after finishing their examination at the scene of the incident, took both husband and wife into custody at Pattaya Police Station.
It is understood that they are considering whether to charge both parties to the marriage in relation to their violent actions or whether the Thai woman had acted in self-defence. The investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
Thai wife claimed she was defending herself
Police Lieutenant Colonel Jirasak Abphaeng gave some insight into how police are approaching the matter: ‘The British man was wounded and so was his wife. She said that she tried to defend herself from his attack.’
The officer said that they are now taking a detailed statement from both parties. ‘There were only two people in the room so we have to interview both of them to find the true details of what happened.’
The couple should not be living together
He also indicated that the violent attack means that the pair should not be living together. ‘If they both attacked each other, they could both be charged. Right now, it is not a good idea for them to stay together.’
Further reading:
Drunken man killed by his wife in Northern Thailand after a heated row following a party at home
Thai man brutally murders the man who took his wife as his own in a country that lives off passion
Two Thai women with foreign husbands involved in violent incidents that saw men hospitalised
https://www.facebook.com/thaiexaminer/videos/599637827282376/
