Japanese man allegedly beaten by Pattaya bar security

A Japanese man is recovering after allegedly receiving a beating by security guards at a bar in central Pattaya just after midnight this morning, according to the Pattaya City Police. The 41 year old Japanese man, Takeshi Shigami, arrived at the police station at 1am, saying that two nightclub guards assaulted him “without provocation”. He claims he did nothing to aggravate the bouncers into attacking. The man filed the police report and then went to the local hospital a checkup out of an abundance of caution.

The Pattaya News reports that Pattaya police attempted to locate the suspect after investigating the incident at the bar, asking the suspect’s father to tell the bouncer to turn himself in. The suspect, Nipon Prakong, arrived to be interviewed at the police station at 4am, and proceeded to lay out a very different tale than that of the victim’s.

He accepted full responsibility for attacking the Japanese man, but claimed that the other security guards at the club were not involved. He also stressed that the incident was not unprovoked. His version of events described a very drunk Takeshi entering the bar after closing time demanding a beer even though they were clearly shut and had all the house lights on.

Pattaya currently has a midnight curfew for bars because of Covid-19, just as Bangkok is considering a 9pm curfew so the bar was obligated to follow that restriction. They refused to serve him, at which point the Japanese man got visibly agitated. Nipon said that Takeshi was disappointed and upset and clearly drunk and began shouting loudly, demanding to be served.

The bouncer asked him to leave the bar, but the man allegedly refused demanding repeatedly to be given a beer before he would agree to vacate the closed nightclub. Eventually the man pushed the bouncer, though the bouncer admits it was a light push, but Nipon was enraged and hit Takeshi in the face.

The bouncer is now facing criminal charges of committing bodily harm causing injuries. The name of the bar hasn’t been disclosed at this stage as Pattaya Police considered it an ongoing investigation. They plan to review the CCTV footage inside the bar to confirm if the beating was unprovoked as the Japanese man claims or came after intoxicated belligerence escalated to a violent outburst as the bouncer asserts. They also plan on taking additional statements from both the security guard and the Japanese men, including investigating further Takeshi’s claim that there were two bouncers involved not just Nipon.

SOURCE: The Pattaya News