 A Thai woman who had her ex-husband killed and then tried to dispose of his body by chopping it up and burning it on a barbecue was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment.
Pannada Raolueang, 35, was convicted of the murder of Toby Charnaud, 41, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, by a judge at Petchaburi provincial court. She was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life in prison. Three men - two relatives and a neighbour - were also given the same sentence.
| Pannada must be real convincing. |
Judge Sarayuth Susayanawin said Pannada was guilty of killing her ex-husband by "hiring other people to commit murder". Witnesses told the court how Pannada invited Mr Charnaud to her home in Petchaburi, 65 miles south-west of Bangkok, in April 2005 to collect their four-year-old son, Daniel. When he arrived, the men, Bunthiam Phuiphong, 31, Chatri Sriprathum, 28, and Niphit Satabut, 27, tried to shoot him, but the homemade gun misfired.
| Next time get a genuine shutter gun. |
They then beat him to death with an iron bar before chopping up his body and trying to burn it on a barbecue.
| They should have asked me, I can burn anything on a grill. |
The charred remains were buried in a prepared hole in a nearby national park.
Pannada initially reported Mr Charnaud missing, but his family hired a private investigator to find him. After mobile phone records showed the owner of two bars had been in his former wife's house on the day he vanished, police raided the property.
| A scene from "Matlock" ensued. |
Two of the defendants confessed to the crime and led police to where they had buried the remains. The four escaped the death penalty because they had cooperated with the court, the judge said.
After the verdict Pannada said she wanted to see her son, who now lives with his father's family in England.
| I think that qualifies as chutzpah. |
Mr Charnaud met Pannada in Bangkok at a sex bar and they married in 1997. He took her back to live with his parents in Wiltshire until he sold his farm to return to Thailand, where he bought his bars.
| Copper-bottomed investments, those were ... |
They divorced in 2004 after he learned of her affair with a Thai police officer and her gambling debts.
| I rather suspect Toby wasn't thinking with his brain when he proposed. |
Mr Charnaud kept custody of Daniel but the boy regularly visited his mother.
Pannada said she arranged the murder after she heard Mr Charnaud had started a relationship with another Thai woman.
| Toby wasn't an especially quick learner. |
"She feared her son would face hardship and therefore wanted to kill her husband," according to testimony read out in court. But a lawyer for the Charnaud family said yesterday he believed money was the main motive. She wanted to "inherit everything through their son", Bunchu Yensabai said. |