Bullman is now living in Oslo and will not be deported back to Thailand but is expected to be charged concerning the death of UK IT engineer Amitpal Bajaj on August 17th 2019, by Norwegian authorities in due course. Speaking to a True Crime Norwegian podcast, Bullman who is only beginning to recover from serious ill health linked with his ordeal, appears to be coming clean about what happened at the luxury hotel in Phuket that night and has made it clear that the violent disturbance and fracas which left a 34-year-old father of an infant boy dead was entirely his fault.
Norwegian fugitive from Thai justice Roger Bullman who evaded a Red Notice Interpol alert and landed back in Oslo on May 27th last has been telling Norwegian listeners how he successfully evaded capture by lying low in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam aided by the Covid pandemic and how his return to Norway was nearly torpedoed at the last leg when a passport scanner at Orly Airport in Paris detected the problem with his false passport supplied by a Vietnamese kidnapping gang who he paid to execute his escape from his hell hole existence in Southeast Asia. Bullman has also expressed deep remorse and shame for his actions which led to the violent death of a UK tourist in Phuket in August 2019.
Roger Bullman, the 57-year-old Norwegian wanted for murder in Thailand, was assisted by a Vietnamese criminal gang to evade detection as he defied an Interpol Red Notice issued against him in December 2019. He arrived back in Oslo at the end of May.
Police in Oslo have already confirmed that the Norwegian killer, a former soldier, psychiatrist nurse and bodybuilder before the homicide in Thailand, will not be deported back to Thailand under any circumstances.
False passport with a younger personal profile used by Bullman to leave Vietnam last month and make his way to Paris and on to Oslo on Saturday, May 27th
Bullman was given a false passport with an entry stamp into Vietnam shown on it this year in the name of Mr Kurt Herald Hensen which he used to make his way, first of all on a flight to Orly Airport in Paris and then to Gardermoen Airport Oslo on the morning of Saturday, May 27th last.
On arrival in Oslo, Mr Bullman immediately presented himself to Norwegian police at the airport and left them an address where he was staying in the capital.
Brit’s killer is safe in Oslo and will not be extradited to Thailand with local police taking on the case
Bullman, the Norwegian killer and fugitive from Thai justice lands in Oslo on a false name and passport
As well as assurances from a spokesperson from the Norwegian police in Oslo, Ms Unni Grøndal, that he would not be returned to Thailand, Bullman’s lawyer Mr Farid Bouras of the law firm Elden Advokatfirma who has been liaising with authorities in the Scandinavian country, has pointed out that Norway does not have an extradition treaty with Thailand.
Conflicting reports about the circumstances of the homicide as Bullman sought and was granted bail initially by claiming that the UK man attacked him
However, it is understood that Norwegian police are looking at the case and that Bullman may eventually face a criminal charge, possibly manslaughter or even murder, related to the death of 34-year-old Amitpal Singh Bajaj, an IT consultant originally from London who was settled with his wife and 20-month old child in Singapore when disaster struck on the night of August 17th at the Grand Centara Hotel in the Kathu area of Phuket, a five-star luxury hotel.
Norwegian killer accepts he’s going to Thai prison after the violent killing of UK man at Phuket hotel
There have been conflicting reports about the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr Bajaj some of which are attributable to claims Mr Bullman made to police after his arrest and on the basis of which local police decided to grant him bail.
Bullman claimed, at one point, to initial Thai investigators at the local police station in the hours after the shocking incident, that Mr Bajaj had entered his room with a knife whereas, now, it appears to be accepted that the Norwegian stormed into the hotel suite of the young family after being upbraided at length by the IT consultant over his singing and noise making on the balcony of the room which was adjacent to the young family and from which access was possible by breaking down a flimsy door or partition.
Bullman now appears to come clean and admits that he stormed into the young family’s hotel suite after an extended verbal exchange with an irate Mr Bajaj
Now, however, Bullman appears to tell a different story.
In recent days, he admitted that he had charged violently into the family’s room next door and made clear his guilt related to his actions.
‘Sometimes I damn well wish it was me, so I wouldn’t have to deal with this. I see that man as some kind of hero. I think he tried to protect his little family, which I didn’t even know was there,’ he told a popular podcast in Norway. ‘I think he wanted to put an end to my screaming and my behaviour. If I could ever talk to that little boy, I would explain to him that his dad was a hero who tried to save you and your mother.’
Then he admitted that he had put the younger man in a chokehold which is how Mr Bajaj ultimately died, from asphyxiation but not before grabbing a fruit knife in the room and, in a backward motion, stabbing Bullman in the left shoulder as a means of self-defence.
‘I have worked with psychiatric patients for 14 years and that is how you must restrain them,’ Bullman admitted. ‘I was with my girlfriend and we were happy that night.’
Fled Phuket just before his bail was due to be rescinded by the Phuket Provincial Court as the police investigation of the matter took on a darker aspect
Bullman later fled Phuket and Thailand just hours after the international press showed him sunbathing at a hotel In Phuket’s Karon area as his partner had flown back to Norway and the Phuket Provincial Court was on the verge of possibly rescinding his bail which would have led to him being incarcerated in the notorious Thai corrections system.
Police had begun, at that stage, to form a different, darker opinion about the incident and Bullman’s role in it, an assessment which later led to the charge against him being raised to murder.
The next sighting of Bullman was when he was seen in December 2019 while visiting the Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.
In recent days, Bullman has told the podcast in Norway that he initially fled Thailand and spent time in Laos and Cambodia before eventually crossing over to Vietnam.
Covid pandemic may have saved Bullman from arrest in Vietnam in 2020 after he crossed into the country and lived in a bolthole for over three years
Bullman’s success at evading capture by authorities despite an international arrest warrant has a lot to do with the Covid pandemic which meant that while living illegally in Vietnam with a passport without a valid entry stamp or visa, he was able to survive by staying indoors 23 hours a day while only coming out for one hour to find food and essentials while wearing a mask.
The lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City which is where Bullman was holed up, even saw food deliveries to residential homes and apartments often saving him the bother of running his daily gauntlet.
He disclosed that his landlord remonstrated with him on several occasions about his incomplete legal status and asked him to report to the police.
Then, with funds supplied from Norway this year after his mother, Ms Turid Hansen had died in 2021 and from the proceeds of her estate, reported to be $160,000 from the sale of a holiday home in Skjeberg in the south-east of Oslo, he was able to purchase his way back to Norway so that he could be reunited with his family and his thirteen-year-old daughter whom he had not met in nearly four years.
Used ultra secure Signal app favoured by criminals to talk with family but was nearly captured hours before arriving in Oslo at Orly Airport in Paris
It is understood that Bullman used the ultra-secure Signal app, favoured by international mafia gangs and criminals, to communicate with his family in Norway while lying low in Vietnam.
His eventual return home involved placing himself in the hands of a Vietnamese kidnap gang and paying a ransom for his own release, so Mr Bullman tells his story, leading to his arrival back in Oslo last month.
Bullman, this week, told how he was stopped at Orly Airport when a passport scanner rejected his passport which was that of an individual 23 years younger than him.
The fugitive had to be screened personally but was interrogated by what appeared to be two immigration officers flirting with each other who quickly waved him through on his last leg home from his nightmare ordeal.
His arrest, at that point, would have led to him being deported back to Thailand on foot of the international arrest warrant which is still in force against him.
Poor health and loneliness forced him home
While in Vietnam, Bullman’s health deteriorated due to a poor diet, loneliness and his inability to avail of proper health care in the communist one-party state.
He developed chronic problems with his teeth and a stomach ulcer.
The man who arrived back in Norway on May 27th was a shadow of his former self with sunken eyes and suffering an extreme loss of weight.
Bullman wore a long sleeve shirt covering his distinctive tattoos while wearing a baseball hat and Covid mask to conceal his identity.
He has been telling his story on the Norwegian podcast Avhort on Spotify, since the end of May when he returned to his native country.
The podcast features in-depth coverage of true stories often featuring crime.
Bullman’s story told on Norwegian podcast Avhort
This week he told listeners that he felt great shame and remorse over his actions just under four years ago.
Bullman expresses remorse for his actions and appears to take responsibility for what happened in Phuket when a brave father and husband lost his life
‘May I first be allowed to offer my condolences to the family and tell them how sorry I am,’ he declared. ‘I am very ashamed, and it should never have happened that a little boy should lose his father and a young woman has become a widow because of me.’
In the wake of Bullman’s return, the widow of Mr Bajaj, Ms Bandhna Bajaj, declined to speak to the press about the situation but it is known that the family and wider community are upset about the latest turn of events which is now reported to have involved the UK police.
However, her feelings for her deceased husband were clear in 2019 when she urged the Royal Thai Police to have Bullman extradited back to the kingdom and praised her husband as a hero.
‘When I saw Amitpal protect me and my son like that, I think I have never loved him as much as I loved him at that moment. I don’t think everyone could do what he did. I don’t think I could have done that,’ she explained. ‘The fact that he gave me time to run with our son, shows that he put our lives before his.’
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Further reading:
Fugitive Bullman still on the run – Phuket police request additional manpower to arrest him
Norwegian killer Bullman hunted by police in Phuket, failed to turn up in court and disappeared
Norwegian killer accepts he’s going to Thai prison after violent killing of UK man at Phuket hotel
UK man’s wife says her husband died protecting his family in Phuket: ‘He will always be our hero’
