The criminal court in Pattaya today jailed an American schoolteacher for a year for libeling Drew Walter Noyes, an American who set up business in the city as a fake lawyer and who is currently on the run after being found guilty of extortion.
The teacher and his defence team are shocked at the decision but said they could not convey their feelings due to Thailand’s contempt of court laws. Criticism of a judge can carry the penalty of seven years in jail.
The teacher was accused of publishing on his website photo-shopped pictures of Drew Noyes, 60, and his colleague Brian Goudie, 49, dressed in revealing leather outfits as if they were taking parry in a gay parade.
Drew Noyes, who boasted he owned Spice magazine, ‘the biggest Gay magazine in Thailand’, said that to accuse him of being gay was a gross libel. He was a family man with many children and strictly heterosexual.
Noyes did not attend the hearing. He has fled to the United States and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The teacher denied he was the owner of the website in question – SubSeroSiam. He was granted leave to appeal with an additional payment of 50,000 baht bail.
The controversial case was brought under Thailand’s Computer Crime Act libel law. It is against the law in Thailand to publish any photograph which is photo-shopped to the detriment of the subject – even if the image is satirical.
Pictures of for instance former Prime Ministers Abhisit Vejjajiva and Thaksin Shinawatra have frequently appeared in the Thai media as Adolf Hitler and no action has been taken.
Drew Noyes made a point of befriending the Pattaya Court. He organized a legal seminar with judges at Pattaya City Hall, dined out with the judges, and even announced that he was writing a book on libel with the Chief Judge of Chonburi.
The court has allowed him to take numerous computer crime cases against his perceived enemies but nearly two years ago jailed him for extortion.
He had demanded seven million baht from the Thonglor Beauty Clinic in Pattaya; otherwise the owners and clinic would face a police raid and bad publicity in his Pattaya Times newspaper. The raid by CSD officers did actually take place but local police monitored it and nothing untoward was found.
The case was brought by police and Noyes was jailed for two years together with his common-law wife Wanrapa Boonsu.
He has at least nine half Thai children, four his first Thai wife Nittaya Chaiyasit Noyes (named as Chaisit on some documents in the US) three by Wanrapa Boonsu, and two by former members of staff at his One Stop Service Center, aka PattayaLawyers, aka One Stop Legal Service Center in Pattaya.
In the United States he was exposed in a major article in the Wilmington Morning Star in which he was accused of property fraud, share fraud, and the sexual harassment of a junior employee, telling her she would not get the extra work hours she needed unless she provided him with an oral sex service.
Drew Noyes court appointed and registered interpreter Rose Chayachon Yangpreeda has been revealed to be Facebook friend of Drew Noyes, Brian Goudie and Harris Black.
Goudie, who falsely claimed to be a British barrister and officer in the Royal Marines, is appealing a jail sentence for three years for cheating a 78-year-old woman out of nearly US$300,000 (including pocketing bail for her son who died in prison). A warrant for his arrest has also been issued on charges of revenge porn and fraud and he is currently on the run.
In Australia under the name Goldie which he was born with, Goudie was jailed for six years for stealing from a West Australian mining company. He currently operates a website called CasewatchAsia, to attack is enemies and those of Noyes.
Goudie is the subject of the documentary ‘Brian Goldie – Scottish swindler – by Makeworld Media.
Harris Black, a Canadian, has a warrant for his arrest out for him in California, and his frauds have repeatedly been exposed in television programmes in Canada.
He has currently posted a video on YouTube of his ‘ex-Thai wife’ featuring naked pictures of her and announcing he wants to get revenge.
She was a former bar girl who scammed him he writes. He had spent 200,000 baht on her house, etc. etc.
SOME MISTAKE HERE SURELY?
The teacher has not been named in this report as a matter of principal. I have reserved comment for later.
But today’s judgment seems to fly in the face of what Thailand’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said in answer to questions UN officials raised over the prosecution and hounding of Migrant Workers Rights Network campaigner Andy Hall.
