New Zealander killed in Karon

KARON: New Zealand tourist Warwick Button, 32, died early Thursday morning during a fight with bar owner Wayne Robinson, 40, and his friend Anthony Quinn, 56, both from the UK.

Chalong Police Inspector Lt Col Chokchai Sutthimek told the Gazette that he was informed of an altercation among foreigners at the Dimension Bar on the access road to the Karon Whale Resort at about 1 am on October 12.

Arriving at the scene 10 minutes later, Col Chokchai found bar owner Robinson sitting on the victim’s neck and back area and Quinn sitting on his posterior, both apparently trying to constrain the New Zealander, with whom they had been fighting.

Separating the men and turning over Button, who was lying face down, Col Chokchai found he had already died. Apart from a bloody nose and some bruises on his mouth and chin, there were no other signs of injury to the victim, he said.

Button’s body was sent to Patong Hospital for examination.

Col Chokchai said that during questioning, the victim’s girlfriend, also from New Zealand, said she had dinner with Button at the Buffalo Steak House in Kata that night. However the couple had an argument and Button dropped the woman off at their room at the Golden Sand Inn about 11 pm, before going back out on his own.

Button was already very drunk, she told police, adding that she only learned of her boyfriend’s death after waking up the following morning.

The Gazette contacted the New Zealand Embassy, where media relations officer Linda Walker confirmed the victim’s name, spelling and age, but refused to give any further information. She said that Button’s next of kin had already been notified and that she did not want to release any information to the media.

Chalong Police, treating the death as accidental, charged both men with manslaughter and released them on bail, the total amount of which was reported as 600,000 baht.