Druggie with a grudge
A vocational student in Bangkok says he is mystified as to why an old school friend burst into his girlfriend's flat and knifed him in the abdomen.
Siriwat 'Boat' Phatthanapong nurses his wounds at the police station.
Siriwat "Boat" Phatthanapong, 20, was pictured in dramatic news images clutching his lower belly at Samrae police station in Thon Buri as blood streamed from his wound.
He sought help at the station following the Jan 30 attack at a nearby block of police flats for its staff. Mr Boat said the knifeman, Poramin "Mix" Pimwanna, 20, a Grab food rider, bore a grudge against him but he was not sure why.
Police helped him stanch the flow of blood before sending him to hospital where he was treated.
Mr Boat was visiting his girlfriend, Sawinee "Prai" Kaewsainok, 22, at the flat when Mix, a friend from his secondary school days who has served time for drug offences, turned up and knifed him before fleeing.
Prai's father is Pol Capt Phatcharapong Kaewsainok, deputy inspector of investigations at the station. Mr Boat regularly visits Ms Prai after he finishes school.
CCTV footage outside the ground floor lift shows the couple making two trips to their flat that evening before the knifeman turns up at 10.12pm.
Ms Prai said she was doing her homework when she heard a knock at the door and someone calling Mr Boat's name.
Poramin 'Mix' Pimwanna
Her boyfriend answered the door and Mix promptly punched him in the face. The two started arguing, and she heard Mr Boat say "So you do use the internet, do you."
After Mr Boat returned the punch, Mix whipped out his knife and stabbed him in the lower abdomen.
She leapt to her feet, pushed the knifeman away, and closed the door on him. Mix fled the scene but handed himself in to police the next evening, after police had contacted his family. He was charged with assault causing danger, and carrying a knife in a public place.
Mix said he acted on the spur of the moment but claimed he had a personal grievance against Mr Boat. He declined to go into detail. Police let him go home after he had surrendered, though he was to report to the Thon Buri court the next day.
Ms Prai, who went to the station as a witness, said her boyfriend is a quiet type and has no problems with anyone. "We have been together for two years and my parents know," she said.
Nursing his wound, Mr Boat said he was shocked. He said he and Mix were once friends, but after Mix was jailed for drugs they fell out of touch.
On Jan 24, the knifeman, evidently out of jail, left a letter on his motorbike, saying: "If you don't want to answer my message, don't bother...but when I go past you next, we will see each other for sure."
Later, Mix contacted him on social media and challenged him over a personal matter. "I tried to talk to him but he would not yield, he just wanted to sort it out in person," Mr Boat said.
He was not surprised that Mix should be carrying a knife, but wondered why he brought it if his intention was simply to clear matters between them. The case continues.
Victor the Cleaner reprise
A man accused of a brutal joint killing almost 14 years ago insists he was just cleaning up the murder scene after his co-accused committed the crime, rather than wielding a weapon himself.
Karan Makkaew was arrested at an oil palm plantation.
Police commandos arrested Karan Makkaew, 36, at an oil palm plantation in Aow Luek of Krabi on Jan 30 for his role in the killing of underground lender Chanaporn Thongkamnoi, 43, in Samrong, Samut Prakan, on March 25, 2008.
Police say Mr Karan and his four co-accused, who have since been caught, lured the victim to a building owned by Mr Karan and killed him in a dispute over drugs.
The men stabbed and beat the victim with a crowbar, stuffed his body in a sack, and dumped it in grassland off soi Ruamrangsun in village 6 about 3km away.
They split up and fled. Mr Karan is thought to have returned to his girlfriend's home district in Aow Luek, despite the risk of being caught. He found work at the plantation before locals spotted him and told police.
Commandos surrounded the property while Mr Karan was asleep. Making the most of the 14-year gap since the crime occurred to sow doubt, Mr Karan initially insisted it was a case of mistaken identity, and police had arrested the wrong man.
However, when confronted with documentary evidence he admitted it was him sought in the warrant.
News reports say the five accused wanted to buy drugs from the victim and asked to pay later, but he refused. They lured Chanaporn to the building in Samrong that day. He was carrying 200 speed pills, which they took before fleeing.
Mr Karan said that while he owned the building where the murder took place, he didn't kill Chanaporn but merely cleaned up afterwards. "I wiped up the blood and washed the place down after the others took the body out to be dumped," he said.
His co-accused, however, insist Mr Karan also took part. Police charged him with intentional killing.
A teen who likes to hang
A Nakhon Ratchasima teenager found hanging from the ceiling of a phone shop, his head caught in a grill installed to deter burglars, insisted he was just taking a walk when he fell in.
Tik, a young burglar, hanging from the ceiling, his head stuck in the grill.
News images showed the youngster, Tik, 13, a well-known petty thief, calling for help after his body made it through gaps in the grill but he was unable to pull through his head, leaving him hanging aloft.
The owner of the shop in Talad Nat Wang Mee in Wang Mee, Wang Nam Keow, had closed for the evening on Jan 29 when locals at an eatery next door heard the youth's faint cries for help.
Phadcha Ngonjantuek, 34, said she was having a meal when she heard the cries and contacted the owner, Rattanaporn Saeyang, 33.
By the time the owner arrived and unlocked the shop, the youngster was fast running out of energy.
His legs were flailing about, knocking items off shelves on the wall, but he was unable to get loose.
A large crowd gathered to watch the hour-long rescue. As locals fetched a ladder and set about prising Tik's head from the grill, Ms Rattanaporn demanded to know what the youngster was doing there.
He did not reply, moaning repeatedly that he was having trouble coping.
Ms Rattanaporn reckons Tik, known for pinching market items, entered via toilets behind the shop to gain entry through the roof.
She said she had installed the grill structure on the ceiling to keep away intruders.
"They can get their body through but their heads get stuck," she said, adding the structure was designed to be burglar-proof.
The young man, however, insisted he was just taking a walk (on her roof, presumably) when he fell in.
Wang Nam Keow police, who sent him to the province's juvenile and family court, charged him with breaking in and attempted burglary.
