OFF THE WIRE
Video producer Kevin Attew, 57, from Aldershot in Hampshire, drowned in a shallow lake beind Chaweng Beach, according police on Koh Samui
Thai police have launched a murder inquiry into the death of a Briton on the island of Koh Samui after a post-mortem examination ruled that he had drowned.
Police on the holiday island had previously ruled that video producer Kevin Attew, 57, from Aldershot, Hampshire, committed suicide by drowning himself in a lake near the resort area of Chawaeng after his Thai girlfriend told them that he intended to do just that.
Mr Attew's body was found last Tuesday.
But after pictures taken by his best friend appeared to show that he had been beaten to death before being put in the water, the murder inquiry was launched.
Further doubt was cast on the suicide verdict when it emerged that the man-made lake in which his body was found was fewer than 30 centimetres deep - and that the lake was only yards from the Gulf of Thailand, which would have been a more effective suicide spot.
Londoner Crispin Paton-Smith, who publishes of the island's real estate magazine and was Mr Attew's best friend, said: 'I was appalled to hear the verdict of drowning.
'It was a no-brainer. Kevin was beaten to death and his body was left on dry land for quite a while before being put in the lake.'
Paton-Smith, a former gunner in the Royal Artillery, said: 'I have spoken to his girlfriend and she continues to insist he committed suicide.
'He did not - unless he beat himself to death. He would have had to dig a hole to drown himself.
'Kevin ran a very successful bar and was the sweetest man in the world. He had no enemies.'
Police on Koh Samui tend to play down incidents of crime because they fear they will damage the island's valuable tourist industry.
A police spokesman in Surat Thani on the mainland in southern Thailand said: 'We are treating this as murder and have asked for the body to be sent here for a full autopsy.'
Mr Attew, who produced rock and advertising videos in Britain, owned the Honey Barb in Chawaeng, a meeting place for bikers.
He was founder of the Koh Samui Pirates motorcycle club, which consisted mainly of middle-aged male bikers who enjoy touring on their machines.
Thai police have at least once mistaken such motorcyclists for members of Scandinavian and American motorcycle gangs with a reputation for crime.
They arrested and jailed several law-abiding bikers four years ago, including Mr Paton-Smith, a member of the Koh Samui Bandidos motorcycle club, who was eventually released without charge.
A British Embassy spokesman said relatives of Mr Attew had been informed of his death.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392431/Murder-probe-Brit-beaten-death-dumped-12-inches-water.html#ixzz1O7LR6Eq0