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| (File Picture – Drew Noyes) |
BUT COMPUTER CRIME CASE MUST BE CLEARED TOO
Former Pattaya Times publisher Drew Noyes has withdrawn a charge of libel against journalist Andrew Drummond, his lawyers told Pattaya Provincial Court today (Friday).
But he was further ordered to report back on July 8th to confirm that he had withdrawn an identical charge brought under the Computer Crimes Act.
Noyes,57, who announced in his newspaper that he had come to Thailand by Royal Proclamation, could face arrest for being in breach of a court order if he does not comply.
Noyes appeared in court on Tuesday together with his common-law wife Wanrapa Boonsu, pictured below, charged with the attempted extortion of Dr. Mike Goulet of the Thonglor Beauty and Health Clinic Jomtien.
Its alleged that he demanded 7 million baht, reduced to 2.3 million baht from Dr. Goulet or his premises would be raided by police and he would receive subsequent publicity in the Pattaya Times newspaper.
Dr. Goulet said he was frightened. A Scot former massage parlour owner in Melbourne, Australia, approached him at his clinic, said he had Chinese mafia friends, and told him his ‘boss’ Drew Noyes wanted to see him.
“When Noyes called he said: ‘Come to my office and we can talk about the protection we can offer so your business can run smoothly.” said Goulet.
That case was adjourned until August 14 2013.
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| Drew Noyes and Wanrapa Boonsu identified by Dr. Michael Goulet |
I guessing right about now Drew is one pissed off "mafia boss".
Why was court adjourned to Aug 14th?
Re: Why was court adjourned to Aug 14th?
The extortion case was strictly adjourned due to a backlog of court cases. On the morning of July 12 both the plaintiff (Mike Goulet) and defendant (Drew Noyes) lawyers arrived in Court room number 3 only to be met by another set of defendant and plaintiff lawyers. The other set of lawyers were representing another criminal case that had been delayed 6 times over the past 18 months. I talked to one of the plaintiff witnesses for the other case who advised me that if an agreement could not be reached today it would be adjourned to January/February 2014. This would result in the first witness giving evidence 2+ years after case had started. The reason given why this case would take priority over the Goulet/Noyes case was that it involved a Chinaman who had to leave the country. Naturally there were few comments made such a “why is his time more valuable than mine”. Very frustrating for everybody involved.
Under the sixth amendment to United States Constitution there is a speedy trial clause stating that "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy trial”. At to the Thai justice system … no comment. All I can say it does not surprise me when I hear Thais taking the law into their own hands and circumventing the justice system.
Sorry for the 2 typing errors:
– "July 12" should read "June 12"
– "At to the Thai justice system" should read "As to the Thai justice system"
With the likes of Noyes clogging up the court system with vexatious litigation, is it any surprise there are back-logs??
True. But the main reason for backlogs is the number of hours a day that courts sit and their propensity for allowing all sorts of stalling tactics
I wonder why the Pattaya Mail and Pattaya People aren't covering this saga. You'd think they were protecting one their "own" with their deafening silence from these august publications.
As both publications have many articles touting Drew Noyes tribulations, you'd think they would take enough interest to show the other side of the coin…however as Drew Noyes has been in tons of photos with the owners of both newspapers, perhaps it's understandable that they pretend to ignore the kind of person they've been closely associated with…after all, it's Pattaya..where the truth is far, far different from the photo ops and the papers are there for self promotion rather than reporting news.
Steady there Topper! Much as you may dislike the Pattaya vanity press you can't lump together Pattaya Mail and Pattaya People. It is many, many years since Pattaya Mail wrote anything at all about Drew, let alone anything positive. They simply ignore him and his odd doings. I discern that this silence at-all-costs policy is a deliberate, long-term strategy on the paper's part. Pattaya People is a very different kettle of fish and it would be astonishing if it wrote anything negative about Drew since the publicly-promoted "new" friendship began. The Pattaya media which did originally report the Thonglor clinic-related arrest were the fortnightly Pattaya Today and the on-line news service Pattaya One. Consequently, these organs were publicly threatened by Drew with biblical, hellfire retribution if you remember. However, to date Noah has remained in his tomb or pyramid or wherever. Personally I would expect that the arrest (and subsequent conviction or acquittal) of any Pattaya, farang public figure on a serious criminal charge would be publicly reported in print and on TV – be it Drew Noyes or Andrew Drummond or even the ancient Barry Kenyon. But all this matters less and less as the social media grow in importance and people learn to think for themselves. People aren't as dumb as some self-obsessed tycoons seem to think. Thus I see that an anti-Drummond blog-site accuses the investigative journalist (who has never yet lost a civil or criminal case in Thailand or anywhere else) of alcoholism, serious sexual indiscretion and cheating an animal charity. The question to ask is whether anybody believes this nonsense. Or do they just yawn? In my limited experience, you get your rocks off by writing rubbish, not reading it.
+1 Barry! You are well respected by everyone in Pattaya, even though you buy size 12 shoes in Cardiff 😉
Barry, what gets under my skin is that the press that is supposed to serve the expat community does little to provide warnings about the kind of scams that expats could get taken in by. Father Ray events with a photo op make the news and fake UNESCO awards and extortion/fraud charges go unreported that's just not right.
At what point does the expat press in Pattaya suggest that a law firm whose address is a pub might not be legit or just because an expat has a picture of him with generals doesn't mean the generals actually know him?
At what point does the new in Pattaya start serving the community rather than themselves?
Excellent questions Topper. I can only give a personal slant as I have had no executive role in the media since 2009 (I was deputy editor of Pattaya Today for some years as my day job). Profits are modest in the Pattaya print media game – both Pattaya Times and Pattaya One as print newspapers ceased publication presumably because they made losses. Andrew Drummond runs a popular website and is an insightful investigative journalist. Top of the range. His problem is that this site is loss-making, is dependent on donations as he readily admits, faces expensive lawsuits (the fact he has never lost one to date hasn't made him any richer) whilst he hasn't had any discernible success in attracting commercial advertising. My suspicion is that the owners of Pattaya media are painfully aware of all that. On the other hand, there is a tendency (on this site) to lump together stereotypically all the Pattaya media in one condemned cell which isn't strictly fair as I mentioned in my previous reply. On the specifics of the UN award Topper recalls, no decisive action was ever taken by a UN authority or, if it was, it was never reported. I go into the general controversies about the Pattaya media a bit more in my forthcoming book Honorary Consul Pattaya which should appear at year's end in some form or other. I'm sure Andrew will let you know. However, you might well be disappointed. I have no intention of spending the rest of my 70s defending trumped-up charges by farang pirouetting nobodies in the Thai libel courts. I might be in my 80s before I'm found not guilty.
Thanks for the lengthy reply Barry…
I'll be a bit more specific with my criticism of the Pattaya media in the future.
Thanks for your insights and I'll be buying your book.
Gosh Topper, ya think? Or maybe they know you're sucking up for every drop of publicity…. mmmmm I see the latest SZS threads fail to stir up the hits, maybe you should respect your viewer's privacy.
Well done Andrew, very well done !!
Christy,
Could you explain how viewer privacy isn't respected on subzerosiam.com? If you like, I'd be happy to give you a detailed description of how viewer privacy is maintained, what information concerning posters each "tier" of users (admin, mod, user, guest) have access to and a brief insight into the owners mindset when it comes to such information.
Yes, Christy, I post here with the SZS logo. Yes I am promoting SZS. Yes, I do post AD's articles on the forum and as you know there are many out there that love to read the discussions that result. One thread alone has nearly 60,000 views.
I would guess by now a reasonable adult would have deduced that AD doesn't mind that I do what I do and have reached the conclusion that discussing me advertising a forum is a waste of time, but thanks for mentioning Subzerosiam.com every chance you get.
Keep up the good work!
Love,
Topper.
I fully agree with Topper, In your former role has consulate maybe a lot of people would like to know how 'British Law' can be a recommended law firm endorsed by the British Embassy when the lawyer had been struck of in the UK.(Andrews previous story)
I have never met you Barry and i am told you are a very good man, but all these foreign scams happened on your watch and until Andrew came about heard nothing of any kind of warning from either consulate or embassy. A newspaper is supposed to tell the news turning a blind eye and not reporting these things is simply not helping the expat community some who come here and are very trusting and naive. As i was when taken in by Drew Noyes but when doing some research a small warning by the consulate or Embassy would have been helpful.
I have no problem taking criticism on the chin but the law firm you mention was put on the embassy list after my retirement. But I agree your general point that Andrew is too often a one-man-band!
Khon Mask; You are confusing the role of corresponding or honorary consul. They do not have the authority to put out warnings of this nature publicly. Everything has to go through the British Embassy which has a policy of non-intervention. But you will not go amiss if you listen to Barry's private advice with which I know he has been generous.
Further Drew Noyes is an American citizen enquiries about him would probably be directed in the direction of the US Embassy, er, which has a policy of non intervention.