A Bangkok court has sentenced an Irish man to 43 years and 10 months in jail for attempting to kill a policeman, forging passports and moving the dismembered body of an American businessman found in a freezer in a high-profile case last year.
The charges against two Americans in the same case were dismissed. However, the court ordered them to be detained pending an appeal.
Peter Colter, 64, whose also goes by the names William Johnson and Herbert Craig Lafon, was charged with attempting to kill a policeman, moving a body, having passports and stamps, having drugs, guns and bullets and violating immigration laws.
Police arrested Colter on Sept 23 last year in a shophouse on Sukhumvit Road after a US suspect implicated him in supplying a forged passport.
During his apprehension, Colter pulled a gun and shot the arresting officer, Mst Sgt Kanjanapong Chedej. He was quickly subdued after a violent struggle. The policeman was treated and survived.
After the arrest, police searched the apartment and found four body parts in the freezer on the first floor.
Also discovered in the shophouse were guns and bullets, 4.5g of crystal methamphetamine, a bag of marijuana, a bottle of ketamine and 10 forged passports.
Two other men, Americans Aaron Gabel, 34, and James Eger, 67, were also charged as they were the ones who signed the contract to rent the shophouse.
The three men were also charged with destroying the body of Charles Dittle, an American businessman, by dismembering it and storing the parts in a freezer at a house on Ekamai Soi 2. They later moved the parts to the shophouse on Sukhumvit Soi 56. The incidents took place between October 2008 and January 2016, according to evidence given at Colter's trial.
The court praised the testimony of witnesses -- a maid, the freezer vendor and a man hired to move it -- who informed them that Colter was the one who owned the freezer and ordered it moved with full knowledge of what was in it.
The court sentenced Colter to life in prison for attempting to kill a policeman. He also got two years for moving the body, forging passports for sale (4 years), having crystal meth for sale (7 years and a fine of 450,000 baht), having marijuana for sale (3 months), having ketamine (1 year and 6 months) and possession of guns and ammunition (1 year).
Since his testimony was partially useful, the penalty was cut by a third to a total of 43 years and 10 months and a fine of 300,000 baht.
Under Thai law, he will actually serve a maximum of 20 years.
As for Gabel and Eger, the court found the evidence against them was not enough to convict, as it did not show they had bought the freezer or were involved in moving the body. But the court ordered them detained pending a state appeal.
