[DREW]

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

German, 25, stabbed to death


PATONG: A 25-year-old German man died early on Sunday morning of stab wounds received in a furious argument with his Thai girlfriend in their rented room on Nanai Rd.

Pol Lt Col Chawalit Niamwadee, of Kathu Police Station, told the Gazette, “I received a call from Patong Hospital at 4 am that a man had been brought into the emergency room, where he had died of his wounds.”

The dead man was identified as Anders Ochner. “He had been stabbed once in his right side and once in his upper chest, and he had three knife wounds to his right hand,” said Col Chawalit.

“At the scene of the stabbing, I found Uthairat Poonchan, 21, from Nakhon Sawan, still holding a knife. There was blood on the floor.

“She told me that she and Mr Ochners frequently had arguments about the victim’s relationships with other women. She had used the knife to protect herself, she said, because he had hit and hurt her before. She herself had cuts to her fingers and her right arm.”

Uthairat, he said, had been arrested on a charge of manslaughter. The investigation continues.

Mr Ochner’s body is currently at Thalang Hospital awaiting collection by his relatives.


Drew