Killing a Kiwi in Thailand

Killing a Kiwi in Thailand is the true story of three Western expats who decided to swap living in Bali for residing in the resort city of Pattaya, Thailand. Tragedy then struck when one of the expats became involved in an argument with a murderous couple in a roadside bar.

The true story originates in Bali where the expats meet at an illegal card game held by a fugitive from the law and a struggling writer trying to survive and to live in a foreign country. Then along with another Australian, they help a naive but extroverted Kiwi escape from an abusive marriage to an overbearing Balinese wife.

The expats then travel from Bali to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, and eventually to Bangkok and the seaside resort town of Pattaya. They plan to live, work and party in the city, and to travel to other parts of South East Asia.

One night, Kiwi Robert Hollick goes out for a walk in Pattaya with his six-month-old Shar-pei puppy dog on a lead.  He then becomes involved in a random argument with a Swedish man and his Thai girlfriend. Then after walking away from the confrontation, he is ambushed and murdered in a Pattaya street.

Malcolm Scott is woken in his Jontiem apartment by a phone call warning him that his friend has been beaten up. He races to Pattaya City with a small group of friends to find him, and in horrific circumstances, the small group discover he is already dead.

The group are then summoned to a meet and greet with the accused murderer on the same night their friend has been stabbed to death. They watch on horrified as the caged and blood-soaked killer is paraded in front of them like some type of macabre trophy.

The man charged with the crime then pleads guilty to manslaughter in order to have the charges against his Thai wife dropped. He then posts bail, and he requests permission of a judge to fly back to Sweden for family reasons.

Malcolm Scott and his friends try to stop the killer escaping from Thailand using intelligence supplied to them by an English lawyer with contacts in the judiciary. However, the information they supply to the New Zealand Embassy is largely ignored and generally dismissed as gossip.

The accused skips bail, but after a request by Thai Interpol he is arrested in Sweden and sent to trial. Unfortunately, the witnesses are unable to attend, and he receives an eighteen-month sentence for the savage, unprovoked, and random killing of a Kiwi in Thailand.

Killing a Kiwi in Thailand is the true story of author Malcolm Scott's best friend's murder and how the couple accused of the crime managed to escape justice.