British Journalist Absent – Supreme Court issued mandatory arrest warrant

James Lumsden (right)

The Thai Supreme Court has as expected issued an arrest warrant for British journalist Andrew Drummond (the owner of this site) for failing to attend a hearing on a final judgment on a libel case brought by James Lumsden, former joint proprietor of ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ Club in Pattaya.


This is a the usual formality when defendants do not turn up for Supreme Court readings, and as Andrew Drummond is not in Thailand does not have much bearing.

Drummond writes:

“I had previously been acquitted of this case and one other brought by Lumsden, now owner of the Baan Souy Hotel in Pattaya, by the Appeal court.

“At the time the decisions were applauded by the FCCT and the British Association of Journalists.

“I have already announced my departure from Thailand with my three children aged 7, 5 and 2 due to threats to our safety.

“Along with migrant rights worker Andy Hall and journalists Alan Morison, I have been supported in statements by the European Union, British Ambassador and Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand against criminal libel and Computer Crime libel actions.

“The issue of the arrest warrant does however allow for the reading of the judgment at a later date.

Lumsden more recently

‘The Supreme Court has already reversed one judgment in ,my favour ruling that a story in the Bangkok Post  headlined ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Boyz’ was libelous to Mr. Lumsden a well-known drag queen and businessman in Pattaya – and supporter of the Pattaya Gay Festival.

“The first story was published in the Scottish Sunday Mail and Lumsden took no action against that newspaper. Had he done so and was successful he could have expected damages in terms of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“While the appeal court threw the case out several years ago, the Supreme Court ruling came as a complete surprise.

“In that case against me Lumsden produced a report from the Chonburi Police stating that they had visited ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ and they found no evidence that it was a commercial sex venue. Boyz Boys Boyz has in fact been the biggest gay commercial venue in Pattaya for decades.

” I had accused Lumsden and his partner Gordon May, who did not sue, of defrauding two major investors of their company out of in excess of £250,000 each.

“I stand by my story as do the victims and relatives of the victims.

Macdonald (blue shirt) die in fire

“Victim Number One was Iain Macdonald, a young Scot and son of  a former Provost of Inverness who invested some 10 million baht in the Bodisorn Company which owned ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’.

“He was removed as a director after he died in a fire in the Ambience Hotel, also owned by Bodisorn. A supposed investigation gave the cause of fire as a cigarette in Macdonald’s room. He did not smoke.

“May and Lumsden used a false will showing he had left his estate in Thailand to Supan Kampanya, the Thai boyfriend of May. But Supan got nothing. May and Lumsden merely took over his shares.

“Victim No 2, was Kevin Quill, from Halifax, Yorkshire who put another £300,000 into a business Lumsden and May in Boystown called ‘Patika’ which owned establishments called ‘Throb’ and ‘Splash’ in Pattaya.

“Kevin Quill was arrested at a road-block which appeared to be set up merely to stop his car as he left to go to the airport.

“He was returning to Britain and had decided to bring with him a staggering 200 cartons of Benson and Hedges cigarettes which he had acquired through May’s immigration contacts.

“In one pack  in one of the 200 cartons police found over 90 ‘yaa baa’ pills. Despite the admittance by Police General Noppodol Somboonsub to the British Embassy that Quill was the victim of a ‘frame-up’ he was jailed for six years. No other cartons were opened. The British Embassy wrote a letter confirming the ‘frame up’ but no British official bothered to turn up in court to testify.

Kevin Quill

“The arresting officers drank ‘whisky and black’ at Boyz Boyz Boyz the night after Quill’s arrest, a fact admitted by May, and Lumsden and May then removed him as a director, took his car, and converted his penthouse apartment into rooms to let while he was in custody.

“Quill however was released on bail and got his money back after Lumsden and May failed in their attempts to have him convicted of bringing false charges against them.

“But the condition was that he would sign a statement saying they were not guilty of any criminal offence – a ploy often used by Drew Noyes.

“Truth will never die. I have sent the original Supreme Court judgment for independent scrutiny by a pro-bono barrister in London.

 “I would say initially he is confused and that may be an understatement.
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“The Supreme Court has discredited Quill’s testimony, because he was convicted of the drugs offence.

“Pretty much everyone who knew Quill knew that he had absolutely no connection with drugs. This has been a pretty disgraceful period in law enforcement and  application of justice in Pattaya and Thailand, but I cannot say it is unusual.

“The judgment further stated that people who read the article would form the opinion that May and Lumsden might have been responsible for Macdonald’s death. While I admit this is possibly true and it has certainly crossed my mind many times, it was not suggested in any way in the article and thus the judgment is based on imagined circumstances.

“People reading my article would have come to the conclusion that these men had few scruples.  The money with which ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ was founded without doubt came from an Edinburgh property company Teague Homes which noted in its annual report that some quarter of a million pounds had been ‘misappropriated by Gordon May.”

“May was a director of that company. Lumsden was the company secretary.”

“I have deliberately kept all records on this case and that means the matter will not rest.”

The phony will

Letter 1 – from Costas Paris – President of FCCT to Ministry of Foreign Affairs