Four Thai men aged 28-36 are now arrested and charged with non-intentional violence causing death after turning themselves in to the Cha-Am police Thursday afternoon. A crime that is punished with 3-15 years imprisonment, according to the local police.
The victim of the violence was the 54 year old Dane, Søren Tandrup Olsen. The Dane wanted to get his own car into the streets of Cha-Am, where he has been living with his Thai girlfriend, Lek, since 1999, but his neighbour’s car was in the way.
The Dane asked the neighbour to move it, which made the man very upset. The Cha-Am Police tells that they have had to come by the neighbour’s house a couple of times asking him to quiet down, as he has been very noisy and caused a lot of disturbance in the neighbourhood in spite of only living there for approximately a month.
At first the Thai man verbally assaulted the Dane, and then he started a fight, not even a fair one. Within minutes three friends of the neighbour came to assist him and started beating Søren Tandrup Olsen, who managed to flee into the house, Lek tells sitting at Cha-Am Police Station. Right next to her a police men is eagerly showing the police report with pictures of the body of Lek’s boyfriend.
She is at the police station to identify the four men, who turned themselves in. Having done that she goes back to the scene of Tuesday’s tragic event. To the house where she has to start a new life.
Lek quickly realized that the situation was going out of control, so she phoned the police when the fighting began. According to her the Dane never wanted to argue with the neighbour, whom she describes as provocative and aggressive. In stead of getting into an argument the Dane preferred to mind his own business and if the neighbour made too much noise, Søren Tandrup Olsen rather left his house for a while than complaint.
A few minutes after the first incident, more trouble came the Dane’s way. The neighbour was standing at the back yard gate asking the 54 year old to come out and discuss the matter. The Dane left the house and went to talk. But he was not aware that the three friends of the Thai neighbour were hiding behind the wall, and this time a fist fight was not enough.
”All of sudden the three others came out of nowhere and started beating Søren with steel pipes, that they have fetched. It did not stop till I dragged Søren into safety in the house. At least they did not beat me,” 26 year old Lek tells, while showing the blood stains on the road just outside the backyard, where the Dane was severely beaten.
She and Søren Tandrup Olsen had a souvenir shop in the house just 25 metres from the Cha-Am Beach on the western side of the Gulf of Thailand. In the workshop there are lamps and few of Snow White’s dwarfs waiting to be finished and sold in the shop. In front of the computer, where the Dane spent many hours coming up with new ideas for articles to sell in the shop, Lek has placed a plate with open end sandwiches, just like she always did.
After getting the Dane into safety, Lek thought that it would be wise to go to the hospital.
“Søren did not agree. He said that he just needed to rest, and then he would be okay again,” Lek tells with tears in her eyes.
Meanwhile even more friends of the neighbour had come to help him, so as the Dane was licking his wounds upstairs, people were hiding in front of the house as well as next to the backyard, but the neighbour and his three friends already did more than enough. Much more than enough.
About 10 minutes after lying down, Søren Tandrup Olsen died in his bed. The doctor and the police did not come till later.
The exact cause of death will not be known, until the result of the autopsy is known. Presumably early next week.
