Vandalism a mistake, says mother of accused

Daughter faces 10 years in a Thai prison after ancient wall was defaced

GRANDE PRAIRIE, ALTA.— The mother of a Canadian who was arrested in northern Thailand on charges of spraying paint on an ancient wall says her daughter made a drunken mistake.

Tara Schneider, who lives in Grande Prairie, Alta., said she received a phone call from her daughter, Brittney, about 3:30 a.m. Thursday.

“She just said, ‘Mom, I’m in trouble,’ ” she told The Canadian Press Friday. “I said, ‘What’s wrong? Are you OK?’ ”

“She said, ‘Ya, I’m OK, but I’m in prison.’ I asked her what she did and she told me, and our phone call ended briefly after as they took her phone shortly after that.” Security camera footage shows Furlong Lee, 23, and Schneider, 22, spraying a message on the walls of the Tha Pae Gate in Chiang Mai province about 4 a.m. Thursday.

Col. Teerasak Sriprasert, chief of the Chiang Mai police, said the tourists are in custody and have been charged with vandalizing registered ancient artifacts, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a million baht — or $40,000 — fine.

The chief said the pair admitted to spraying the message out of drunken revelry. He said that Lee, who is from Liverpool, admitted that he wrote “Scouser Lee” on the wall while Brittney told police that she wrote the letter “B’’ underneath it.