Briton takes life by hanging

PATONG, PHUKET: Kathu Police are treating the death of a British man found in a Patong guesthouse early Thursday morning as a suicide.

Kathu Police Duty Officer Jongserm Preecha identified the deceased as 36-year-old Robert William Hilton.

The death was reported to Kathu Police at around 4 am by his girlfriend, 30-year-old Srisaket native Sommai Deejai.

When police including Kathu Police Superintendent Grissak Songmoonnark arrived at the scene, a room on the third floor of the Baan Siam Guesthouse on Soi Banzaan, they found Mr Hilton dead from asphyxiation.

They estimated he had been dead for around three hours. There were no signs of foul play, police said.

Mr Hilton’s body was sent to Patong Hospital by rescue workers.

Ms Deejai told police that she, Mr Hilton and a group of friends had been out enjoying the nightlife on Soi Bangla earlier that evening when Mr Hilton left the group.

When she returned, she found his body suspended by the neck from the bathroom doorknob, dressed only in black underwear.

Mr Hilton had used a red dog leash to take his own life, according to the report.

Ms Deejai quickly cut him down with scissors, but it was too late, she said.

“I admit we had been arguing with him, but not violently. I don’t know what was really bothering him because he didn’t tell me,” she said.

Guesthouse owner Faneh Porter told the Gazette that Mr Hilton and Ms Deejai checked into the hotel on January 24. He was happy and talkative during his stay, she said. 

Mrs Porter confirmed that the couple were legally married. Although she did not know about Mr Hilton’s mental state leading up to the apparent suicide, she thought it might have been related to financial problems.

Mr Hilton’s death has already been reported to the British Embassy in Bangkok, who have notified his next of kin, the Gazette has confirmed.

— Nation Channel (Thai language)