Woman serving life for ordering Phuket murder

A SINGAPOREAN woman is now serving a life sentence in a Thai prison for ordering the murder of a Canadian former model on the island of Phuket, the local media reported.

Diana Goh Li Fun, 35, who was in real estate, had a money dispute with Francis Alex Degioanni. She hired four men to help in killing him outside his home three years ago.

The murder sent shock waves through Phuket’s expatriate community.

Goh is now serving time at a jail in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, as the prison on the resort island holds only inmates serving 15 years or less, the Phuketwan website said on Monday.

Degioanni was in a Toyota pickup returning to his home in a Patong Beach condominium, to celebrate his 34th birthday on Feb 19, 2009, when he was shot eight times by a gunman.

The Canadian property developer’s fiancee, Fern Pencharoenwatana, had just stepped out of the vehicle to open the door to their office-cum-home when the killer and an accomplice pulled up on a motorcycle next to the driver’s side window, opened fire, then fled the scene.

In earlier reports, Goh confessed that she wanted Degioanni dead after he refused to repay a debt worth millions of baht, money that she had borrowed from a friend in Singapore.

Goh paid 1.5 million baht (RM153,750) for the hit on Degioanni. The gunman received 200,000 baht (RM19,943).

Goh and four others – including the gunman, and her friends who had put her in touch with him – were sentenced to life in jail on Dec 29 last year.