Watch seller admits to knifing Russian

Watch seller admits to knifing Russian

A former boxing champion now earning his living selling counterfeit "brand" watches has surrendered to police to answer a charge of knifing a Russian tourist who refused to buy one of his timepieces in Pattaya.

Payu Daengsee, 33, of Trang’s Kantang district, surrendered to Pattaya police on Monday to hear charges stemming from the stabbing of tourist Ivan Cherkashhin, 22, Thai media reported.

Mr Cherkashhin sustained a serious knife wound to his left rib cage in the attack, at a Starbucks coffee shop at the Central Pattaya Beach shopping mall late on the night of Jan 9.

His elder sister Nadezhdn Cherkashhin, 26, earlier  told police her brother was drinking coffee when a watch seller approached him. The man tried to persuade her brother to buy a watch but he refused to do so after finding out it was a counterfeit.

The vendor, however, kept pestering him, making him angry. This in turned angered the seller, who suddenly pulled out a knife and stabbed him, she said.

Police said Mr Payu, a former Channel 7 boxing champion in 1994 who fought as "Phet Namsaengkorsang", confessed. He said he had offered to sell a watch to the Russian tourist, who refused to buy it and scolded him.

He said a heated quarrel then erupted and claimed the Russian had thrown a chair at him. The former boxer explained he pulled a knife and stabbed the tourist once in a fit of anger before fleeing. 

He said he had thrown the knife into the sea before deciding to turn himself in to police.

Pol Col Supathee Boonkrong, acting Pattaya police chief, said Mr Payu had retired from boxing  and had been selling fake watches in the resort city for over seven years.  He had a criminal record which showed he had previously been involved in an assault in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district.

Police would crack down on sellers of counterfeit watches in Pattaya who displayed bad conduct, to help restore Thailand's image, Pol Col Supathee said.

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